Derek Miller (throughthemill) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-12-26 18:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 24, derek miller, thomas galloway, | derek and tom |
Week 24 - late Tuesday morning
Characters: Derek and Tom
Location: Outdoors
Summary: Derek receives a talking to when he goes to retrieve the gun he gave Alice
Rating: PG
It wasn’t unexpected that when Derek in the later part of the morning that the house would be buzzing with news of Alice’s escape. What had been surprising, however, was that she’d come back. Went through all the trouble of running away only to turn around and come right back before the night was over.
Women were crazy.
Now that Alice was home safe, she’d have no need for his pistol. All things considered, the gun was rightfully his and Derek wanted it back. The car she’d taken was empty and though Derek checked the seats thoroughly, there was no sign of the weapon. Everyone said Tom was the one who’d found Alice that morning. Assuming Alice hadn’t thrown the gun out the window before she suddenly decided to return, Tom should know where it went. Might as well go and face the shit coming his way for letting Alice walk out voluntarily.
He found their fearless leader out chopping wood. Life in the country had taught Derek never to sneak up on someone holding an axe and he made sure Tom could see him before he spoke.
“I want my gun back.”
Tom could see him in his peripheral vision, but kept his attention on the wood. He was annoyed with Derek, and with himself as well. It never occurred to him that someone would try to leave in the middle of the night, and so he had never instructed the sentries to let him know if someone did. What annoyed him more was that Derek had surrendered his pistol. The man should know better than to give up weapons, even to Alice.
“Why should I hand it back? You obviously didn’t want it last night.”
Derek stood firm and resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. “Because it’s mine.”
“Possession is nine tenths of the law Derek.” Tom swung the axe with more force than necessary and lodged it into the stump before turning to face the other man. “You handed over your weapon and left yourself defenseless, left us defenseless.”
“You really want to argue the law with me?” This time Derek did roll his eyes. “We’re all still here. Hell, even Alice is back. You put it with the other weapons? I’ll get it myself.”
Tom lifted the bottom of his long sleeve shirt, exposing the pistol in between the waistband of his pants and his belt, then let the shirt drop. “We got lucky. What if the wackos from up north had decided on a early morning visit? They wouldn’t even have needed to shoot you.”
Derek frowned, not liking the way Tom had appropriated his property. “And maybe they could have attacked on the night the house was struck by a meteor. Wouldn’t have needed to shoot me then, either.”
“We can’t control the weather or the heavens Derek.” Tom bit out, working to keep his temper in check. The younger man had a talent for pushing his buttons. “What we can control is whether or not we keep our guard up. Handing over our weapons while on guard duty, even to someone we trust, removes that control.”
“That was my call,” Derek answered, sharpness creeping into his tone. “I wasn’t going to let her go off unarmed.”
“Then why didn’t you have Greg get me up?” Tom answered just as sharply. “If Alice wanted to leave, fine. I’m not one to hold people against their will though I’d rather they wait until it was light out.”
Derek sighed, exasperated. “I told her the same thing, she didn’t want to wait. What Alice does is her own business. She left. So what? She’s back now.”
“This isn’t about Alice!” Derek wasn’t the only one exasperated and Tom ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “It’s about you leaving yourself without a weapon while on guard duty. If Alice wanted to leave, fine, hand her your weapon and then call to the house for another one.”
“And let everyone know she’s gone so you all can drag her right back? Yeah, that would have worked,” the younger man snapped.
Tom rolled his eyes. “Derek. If someone doesn’t want to stay and they leave, I’m not going to mount an effort to go get them back. I don’t think Alice was necessarily in her right mind but that’s beside the point. Once they decide to leave the group they’re no longer my concern. Everyone who’s here is.” Derek was smarter than this, he shouldn’t have to explain things like he was.
“Yeah, well, my concern was making sure Alice didn’t get herself killed. I told her I’d give her enough time to get away and I wasn’t going to leave her unarmed. You don’t like it? Fine? That’s your problem. But I want my gun back.”
“Dammit Derek, letting Alice go isn’t the point!” Tom took hold of the axe handle and jerked it up out of the wood, and put a fresh log on to split. “The point is you should have gotten another weapon. You know where the key to the gun cabinets is, you could have gotten Greg to relieve you while you re-armed.”
“Too late to change that now, isn’t it? I can’t do it any different than what I did so what do you expect me to do about it now?”
“I expect you to not do something like it again, if the situation were to re-occur.” Tom told him flatly. “You want to let them go, fine. You want to give them a weapon, fine. Start carrying a second one so you’re not unarmed.”
He reached under his shirt and pulled out the pistol. “Here.”
“Fine.” Derek took his gun back, checking out of habit for the safety before slipping it into his own waistband. He didn’t wait around to be dismissed like one of Tom’s soldiers. Once he had what was rightfully his, he turned and left the vet with his woodpile.