Page 36 of Lifeline

He tried to kick me again when I came after him, but I smacked him away, rolling him onto his side as I jumped on him, shoving my fingers between his ribs to make him squawk like a wounded bird. I grunted when his flailing ended with a fist smacked roughly against my chest, almost winding me again. I held on tight though he flailed and bucked, trying to get me off while I continued digging into one of his ticklish spots and making him gasp for air.

“Fuck,” I hissed as I was tossed away and landed on the floor, grunting when his knee smacked into the side of my head by accident as he awkwardly tried to get on top of me despite being winded from the torture.

I still had enough life left in me, however, and I twisted to grab his arms before his hands could find purchase on me. I bucked, trying to get him off when one of his hands got free and the dirty bitch smacked me in the face before I bopped him in the forehead with my open palm, making him rear back.

We froze when a voice piped up from somewhere above us. “It’s bad enough I’m supposed to be keeping all of you intact from the dangers of the job. Do you really think it’s necessary to make my job even harder by hurting each other?”

Reno craned his neck, and I looked up to find Colin standing at the edge of the table. He was leaning over, elbow on the tabletop, chin in his open hand as he watched us with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. The three of us stopped, Reno and I breathing like wounded buffalo, and Colin continuing to stare down at us, as if waiting to see if we would continue.

Now the mood had been ruined completely, I didn’t have the energy to continue. With a huff, I gave Reno a shove, and with an incomprehensible grumble, he got up and held out a hand, which I took to help me back to my feet. With a grunt, I rubbed my chest, which felt like it had taken the worst beating, while Reno rubbed his stomach and side.

“I’m not apologizing,” I told Colin because Reno knew damn well the only time I was apologizing to him for fighting was if I went too far…and I hadn’t. “Just so you’re aware.”

“Please,” Colin said. “I was the government-assigned babysitter for a bunch of Marines. You two fight like little girls. Actually, scratch that; that’s an insult to little girls. You had a quarter of the ferocity of a girl fight and with none of the hair pulling. Even toddlers fight meaner than that.”

“He started it,” Reno said, and when Colin and I both rolled our eyes, he gave an indignant huff. “He did, though.”

“How?” Colin asked in amusement, clearly willing to encourage my brother, despite that being completely unnecessary.

“He threw a pen at me,” he said, then huffed. “Fine, I threw something back and⁠—”

We stared at him as he trailed off and grew pink in the face. Colin chuckled. “I was coming to inform you that Jake took care of the rest of your duty today, so outside what you’re doing here, you’re free to go.”

Reno perked up. “He did? That punk.”

“You two are adorable, I swear,” Colin said with an affectionate chuckle. “No good news for you, though, Mika.”

“That’s fine,” I said, shooting a look at Reno and smirking. “I don’t have a not-boyfriend to do stuff for me; I knew that already.”

“Just your ex,” Reno shot back, and when I raised a brow, he frowned. “That sounded so much wittier and cutting in my head.”

“I’m sure,” Colin said mildly. “Oh, and Jake said he’s pretty certain a family of beavers are building a dam at one of the nearby rivers.”

I couldn’t help but smile as Reno’s face lit up. “For real? We haven’t had any near us since I started working here! Does he know where?”

“Yes, but he’s also a barely functioning navigator,” Colin snorted. “At least for giving instructions.”

“Ohhh,” Reno sighed. “Ah crap wait, I should probably check with Xander so he doesn’t⁠—”

“He won’t. If anything, it lets him get rid of Jake, who’s been on his nerves all day,” Colin said with a shake of his head. “Not hard to do, I know, but there it is. He’s already cleared you both, but you’re on call so take a walkie each.”

“Hell, yeah,” Reno said brightly as he left. “I’m so glad your magic dick…or ass made Xander less of a grump!”

He was gone before either of us could say anything, and Colin shot me a dry look. “Remind me, the next time he comes for medication, to slip a healthy dose of laxative in.”

“Oh, don’t think I won’t hold you to that,” I said with a snort. “Because I will.”

“I figured,” he said with a shake of his head.

“How, uh…is that going by the way?” I asked lightly, but there was no way to be casual about that conversation. While things had resolved themselves after the big blowout between Xander and his future ex-wife, and he and Colin had addressed their relationship, I hadn’t seen anything else.

“Oh, wonderful,” Colin said breezily. “He’s knocked up, so we’re going to have our first child in the winter. We’re looking at farmhouses to settle down, have a fleet of sheep and cows, maybe some chickens thrown in. At least three dogs, and a white picket fence for the fun of it.”

“I’ll mind my own business,” I said with a snort.

“We’re good,” he said with a sigh. “Very good. ‘Too good to be true’ good, actually.”

“Huh,” I said as I rounded the table and confirmed that the compiling had made it beyond the six percent mark. I didn’t know why, but I had learned the hard way that if the compiling was going to crash and burn, it was going to do it at the six percent mark. “Didn’t take you for a pessimist.”