Team Spirit - a Reed900 fanfiction

Day one

"Team building," Fowler called it.

Chris said it would boost their team spirit.
"Sure," Tina answered with a wide grin, "as long as there are spirits involved of the alcoholic variety!"

Gavin stared at the tent that would be his home for the next four days. It smelled damp and musty, reminding him of his short time with the boy scouts. There were ten cots inside, five on each side. Christ , he would need a lot of those 'spirits of the alcoholic variety' to get through this.

Tina pushed him aside, jostling him with her large overnight bag. She tossed the bag on the last cot on the left, nearly toppling the thing over. "I call dibs!"

"Oh, fuck no!" Gavin called out and made the few steps it took to get to the back of the tent. He grabbed Tina's bag and dropped it on the second to last cot, claiming the last one for himself. It was bad enough that he had to share a tent with nine other people; if he woke up in the morning the only face he could remotely bear to see was Tina's. God forbid he would have to sleep next to Anderson!

Tina flipped him off, though she made no move to take her bed back. She pulled a tightly rolled sleeping bag from her luggage and started to make her bed. Gavin merely tossed his overnight bag and rolled up sleeping bag on his cot, laying down with his feet up on his bag.
Around him, the others were making up their bed. There's twenty of them, occupying two tents on a camp field in the valley.
It's nice around here; green hills covered in trees, suddenly interrupted by steep, jagged rocks. There's a shallow river running right behind their tents. Even with everyone talking Gavin could hear the murmur of the water. Great . He'd probably have to pee three times that night because of the sound of running water right next to his bed.

The camp field was narrow, stretching out along the river. Their tents were at the back of the field, one of five similar setups. Each group of tents had their own common tent: an open structure with wooden tables and benches underneath a roof of cloth. There was also a kitchen of some sort. And a fire pit, giving Gavin awful visions of singing kumbaya and shit. He's pretty sure he saw one of the officers carrying a guitar case before they left this morning.

"Everybody outside!" The sound of Fowler's voice was as loud here as it was in the bullpen. Gavin thanked his lucky stars he's not sharing a tent with the captain.

Everyone gathered by the common tent, sitting down at the tables. Gavin tested the stability of the wooden bench by rocking it back and forth, much to the dismay of the colleagues next to him. "Don't act like such a child," Anderson grumbled from the other side of the bench.

Gavin wanted to say something in return, yet had to settle for flipping the lieutenant off behind his back. Just like everyone else, Anderson had turned his attention towards two men that stood in front of the tent. At first, Gavin thought they were twins, they looked very much alike. Tall, dark hair, pale skin and full lips. Both were dressed in the same black and white polo shirt with the logo of the outdoor adventure company on their breast: CB-Life.
The shortest of the two - though both had some inches on Gavin - had a clipboard in his hands. "Good afternoon everyone!" he said in a cheerful voice Gavin immediately disliked. "My name is Connor and this is my brother Nines. We are your instructors for the next few days."

Gavin tuned out the rest of the guy's introduction speech and leaned over towards Tina. "The fuck kind of name is Nines?"

"Maybe he's actually called Gavin, but he hates that name," she hissed back. "Now shut up, I want to hear this."

He made a face at her and focused his attention on the lines in the wood of the table top. He paid just enough attention to what was being said to pick out the keywords: archery, KP roster and a night stroll with GPS.