Burning Desire

Worse for Wear

The blazing sun was relentless, it's heat hanging heavy in the humid air as we regrouped at the bottom of the stairs, shrugging off our BA, relieved that that particular drill was done.

"I swear he wants us to die a slow and agonising death." Cassie groaned, reaching for a bottle of water and gulping some down as she swept her golden hair away from her face.

Lacey nodded, leaning back against the wall and accepting the bottle she was handed by Will.

"Should be easy given how much alcohol you got down you last night." Will teased, bumping her shoulder and grabbing a bottle himself.

"Was nowhere near as much as you chugged yourself." She responded, gaining a laugh from the group as a whole.

Jax sprayed some water in his face, shaking it off and shrugging as he joined their debate:

"Actually, I think it was Dodge who outdid us all this time. Nearly drank the place dry."

Dodger hung his head, clearly suffering in the unbearable heat as his hangover showed in his, paler than usual, complexion and defeated expression. I patted him on the back, gulping down some chilled water, feeling the relief as the cold fluid rejuvenated my parched mouth and throat, and cleared the alcohol induced haziness.

"I think he's regretting it now." I teased.

He glared daggers at me, drinking nearly half a bottle in one swoop, before bending down, his hands on his thighs and breathing deeply.

"I hate you all right now." He groaned at the ground.

I caught Sam and Cain's eyes and fought a laugh. Pity was fairly absent in these delightful moments of pure amusement and torture. But the one with the least pity of all, was the man who'd had us running the most intense and physical drills that he could possibly think of, all morning... Alex.

We'd barely had two minutes for a water break, before the man of the moment reappeared beside us, a gloating smile on his face.

"Now that the physical side has been covered, let's try a little mental upkeep." He smirked triumphantly.

An audible groan ran around the group, before Cassie called out, her usual sparky attitude lost among the resignation and bitterness in her delicate state:

"How are you not as dead as we are?"

Alex chuckled, fixing his hazel brown eyes onto her as he answered:

"Because I had the sense to actually stop drinking at nine. I told you all I wasn't going easy on you, you ignored my suggestion, you pay the price."

"This is cruel and unusual lengths of punishment, Sub." She whined, giving up and downing more water.

"Got to keep my Watch up to standard Firefighter Lee." He replied, "The alcohol makes you slow and unfocused. Both of these are things that we can't afford to have. So now we've sped you up a bit, it's time to focus. That means, Handcuff knots, and to make it a little harder on you, blindfolds on from the off."

He'd done well to pick this one. Even though it was easy and something we did on a regular basis, the blindfold from the off, on a day like today, was bound to make meeting the expected time a little more trying.

"And given the circumstances, you're to beat your previous times for this drill. If you can't manage that, then you'll have to complete another two equipment runs up the tower."

His smirk was laced with an evilness that you'd easily resemble with the Grinch, as his eyes swept over the tower behind us, where we'd only just descended from the last run he'd had us do. I mentally shook myself, clearing as much of the exhausted fogginess from my head, determining that there was no way I was about to have to repeat that. I could see the others all following suit, each of them doing various things to try to sharpen themselves up for the challenge.