Team Spirit - a Reed900 fanfiction

Day four

Gavin woke up very early the next morning, a certain pressure low in his stomach urging him to find his way to the toilet. With bare feet in his shoes and a T-shirt quickly thrown on he walked over the silent campfield towards the washroom. The sun was up, yet none of the other campers were awake yet.

"That is the only benefit of waking up this early," Gavin grumbled to himself as he closed the door of one of the stalls behind him. Now he could go about his business in private, without having to think about others who heard - or smelled - what he's doing. Gavin was not opposed to camping, although the public toilets were certainly a big turn off.

He blamed the cookout from last night for his early rise this morning. An abundance of meat never sat well with his digestive system. However, last night was fun. Old Ben turned out to be a true grill master, with Chris as his talented assistant. The assortment of food was good, with something for every taste.

They had a barbecue because it was their last night here, they would leave this afternoon. Gavin had mixed feelings about that. He was looking forward to sleeping in his own bed again, with only his cats as companions instead of nine other people who made strange and annoying noises in their sleep. He even looked forward to returning to his job, far away from the sometimes cringeworthy team building activities from this weekend. Home lacked the presence of a certain outdoor instructor, however.

Gavin considered the possibility of hiring Nines as a personal trainer, quickly dismissing the idea when he thought of how Nines was probably too decent to get involved with clients. Besides, Gavin knew well enough how to keep his body fit for the job. Spending money on a personal trainer would be a waste; not that he was opposed to spending money on Nines.
His eyes fixated on a small spider who made his home inside the toilet stall, Gavin thought back to the cookout from last night.

***

The brothers arrived in the familiar white and black 4x4 vehicle, two grills and a bunch of styrofoam boxes that kept the food cool loaded in the back. Everyone helped to set everything up, some men arguing goodnaturedly about the best way to light the grills until officer Collins took the lead. The guy turned out to have a big ass grill in his backyard, one he even used to prepare his Christmas dinner on.

"How come you never invited me to a cookout?" Gavin asked casually as he watched how the coals slowly turned white and red with heat. He took a sip from his beer, his hand wet from the condensation on the cold bottle.

"Because you never learned how to share, prick," Anderson answered for Collins. He lightly shouldered the detective to the side, two beers in his hands. He handed one to the grill master and they clinked the bottles together in a toast.
"No wonder your partners always run off," he added with a cynical undertone.

That was rubbing salt in a wound Gavin had been nurturing for years already, and the old geezer knew it. In his roughly fourteen years on the job Gavin had cycled through more than a handful of partners, almost every one of them leaving on less than friendly terms. He worked without a partner at the moment, not for the first time in his career. It was not something Gavin was proud of and it even kept him awake at night every now and then, but hell if he would let that show!

"Let's keep things civil, gentlemen," the polite voice of Connor cut in. Although he sounded polite, there was an air of authority to his voice, daring them to continue their argument. The instructor had an apron in his hand, holding it out to Ben; it was fire truck red, with 'license to grill' in bold letters on the front. Gavin took that as his cue to leave, seething with anger. He had several things he wanted to tell Anderson, none of them friendly. Connor's presence made him keep it inside though, not wanting to get another lecture on how they desperately needed team building exercises.