-1-
Sgt. Kenneth Maxwell watches Alex Haley through the mirror until he notices Haley’s body relax into sleep. When he is sure he is deep asleep, Maxwell slides open his desk drawer and takes out the fountain ink pen he’d been given in law school as a gift.
He carefully untwists the barrel and shakes it until there is a thin patch of white powder on the back of his hand. Lifting his hand to his nose he feels an immediate high. Instantly his body goes hot as a synthetic surge of energy pulses through his blood and wakes up his mind.
Maxwell hadn’t done benzos in years, not since his professor had introduced him to more illicit drugs, but the effect was just the same if not more powerful. He focuses the new energy into his work and is surprised it is still night outside when he finishes the last brief hours later.
In a jittery haze Maxwell stands and walks to the garment bag draped across one side of his bed. He glances over at the sleeping Haley and realizes there is a chance he’d never see him again if they dismissed him. He wondered if fate would bring them together again.
He hoped it did.
He also hoped it didn't.
Throwing the
thought aside, Maxwell undresses. He looks at the numerous RLA crests
burned and inked into his arms and back. He wonders if that would be
enough show of his loyalty. If he could just walk into Ft. Perch
shirtless and show those fat bureaucrats that he'd marked his body in a show of loyalty. A body he'd been perfecting for them and their war.
The thought makes him smile, but he nonetheless unzips the bag and pulls the formal uniform on slowly, the teal shirt buttons that go to his neck, the stiff black tie and the cinched black jacket. Kneeling underneath the bed he reaches to the back and pulls out his wooden lock box .
Carefully he pins on the ribbons, bars and insignia that will be expected of him. He leaves off one honor, that one will be put on only at the last minute.
Knowing his transport won’t be around for another few hours Maxwell decides to take one last walk around his camp.
Which is how he’d come to think of it.
His camp. His men. His prisoners. His staff.
He walks around camp slowly, but the drugs have his mind churning with thoughts. He runs his fist into the utility shed door.
Fuck me
He thinks.
Fuck me.
He
turns to continue walking when a figure jumps in front of him. He
reaches to his waist where his gun should be,but remembers he can't carry.
“Sir?” Audrina hisses into the night.
He
relaxes and squints as she comes into the spotlight, her body appears
like it is vibrating. She’s wearing a pink robe which seemed so out of place.
“Why are you awake ?,” he asks, starting to wonder if she is an illusion.
“I heard someone walking around. I didn’t recognize you---you look—nice,” she says her words running together.
She stares up at him intently and narrows in on his eyes. She turns the penlight on her Syndicate on and her mouth goes into a firm, unapproving line.
“Are you--”
“Careful what you say next,” he says
“What did you take, sir ?,” she asks
“Something rich people take to stay awake--”
“Your transport will be here in a few hours,” she responds, exasperated. “They’ll be able to tell.”
He doesn’t like that she is scolding him, but part of him is afraid of upsetting her.
“Don’t worry,” he says “I know how to come down.”
“Are they legal ?,” she asks. “Please don't self-destruct, sir. It’s going to be okay.”
“Go back to bed, Audrina,” he responds.
***
-2-
Alex Haley wakes up alone.
His internal clock always got him up on time, but Sgt. Maxwell must have been ahead of him.
For the first time since his arrest he felt well rested. His body didn't ache.
It had felt wrong to be in Sgt. Maxwell’s private space but a night in a real bed had been nice. Like everything else Sgt. Maxwell seemed to have it was expensive. The comforter was goose feathered and soft.
Remembering Maxwell’s firm insistence on him not touching his shit, Haley quickly leaves the room and goes back to his cot for his uniform. He showers and changes, all the time wondering if Maxwell had gone off to Ft. Perch already.
He didn’t know why he expected to see him before he left.
As he approaches the door to Maxwell’s office the smell hits him.
It’s fragrant and toxic
Haley pushes opens the door to investigate and is faced with a thick haze of opiate smoke. Before he can turn around to leave his eye catches Sgt. Maxwell’s.
The man is sitting on the floor with his back to the wall and his long legs taking up most of the floor space. He is dressed in formal dress including stiff black 8 point cap on his perfectly trimmed dark hair.
In between his fingers is a thin gold pipe producing the pungent smoke. Haley knows immediately it is some kind of illegal substance. It smelled like something his mother took when she had a bad reaction to something and wanted to stop feeling.
“Sorry--,” Haley begins stepping back out the door.
“Come in,” Maxwell says, his voice firm and commanding. “Close the door.”
Haley shuts the door and watches as Maxwell takes a long inhale on the pipe before tilting his head to face Haley.
“This will be our little secret,” he says, causing thick smoke to crawl out of his mouth.
“…Yes, sir,” Haley says, shocked to see Maxwell so blatantly breaking one of the camp rules in front of him.
“Come here,” Maxwell says, gesturing with the pipe.
Haley obeys and when he is standing in front of the man, Maxwell grabs his arm and jerks him down until Haley is sitting next to him on the floor.
Haley watches Maxwell’s profile as he takes another long inhale and closes his eyes. Haley’s own eyes travel down Maxwell’s uniformed body and he stops at the colorful insignias on Maxwell’s coat. There are so many and he doesn’t know what they all mean, but he does recognize the one that is hung the lowest.
“You have a Purple Heart....,” Haley says. He’d seen them being awarded at City of Hope to the wounded soldiers. The officials who presented them always said the soldiers who earned it were heroes.
Maxwell looks down like he didn’t know it was there and presses his lips over the pipe.
“I’m wearing it aren’t I ?,” he snaps as he exhales.
“I guess you are, sir.” Haley responds nervously.
Maxwell holds the pipe out to him.
“You’re
so god damn tense all the time. This won’t hurt you it’s all natural"
Haley wants to say no. After the mess Mother became Gram
had made Haley and his siblings swear never to do drugs and threatened
everything short of death if they did. Harlow was already an addict
himself by then and everyone knew Isla had experimented when her husband
died, but Haley had kept it so far. He didn’t want his life destroyed.
But Maxwell hadn’t asked it. He’d practically ordered it.
Haley takes the cigarette and puts it to his mouth, but doesn’t inhale and Maxwell doesn’t notice as he is clumsily removing the Purple Heart and putting it in his pocket. He quickly takes the cigarette from Haley and does another long inhale before exhaling a long stream of smoke.
“They are going to take my camp away,” Maxwell says and then his lips jerks up slightly. “Fuck me. Apparently that’s how I think of this shithole now; My camp. My prisoners. My men. My staff. They’ll give it all to that shitstain St. John, I know it.”
“Why ?,” Haley asks.
“Because of people like your dipshit brother,” he sneers. “People who challenge my authority and then make me look bad to Headquarters.”
Maxwell pauses and looks at Haley amused.
“What ? Not going to defend Harlow ?”
“No, sir.” he says, not wanting to rile Maxwell up. The man seemed more unpredictable than usual now.
“You don’t have to,” Maxwell continues tipping Haley’s chin up so he stares at him. “I can tell you still want to. Has anyone told you can see every single one of your emotions in your eyes ? They take up 80 percent of your face and they are so god damn telling.”
Self conscious Haley looks away.
“ Look me in the eye,” Maxwell orders.
He does and he sees Maxwell as older than he rememebers. This close he can see the man is losing some hair in the front of his head, small creases in the corners of his face and and there is desperation in his dark eyes—which look very red presently.
“Fuck it,” Maxwell whispers slowly.
He leans down and presses his lips to Haley’s. His lips are warm and forceful, Maxwell pushes Haley’s mouth open and he quickly complies. He feels a trail of excitement in his spine when Maxwell’s tongue slides across a sensitive spot in his mouth.
Haley sinks into the feeling of someone else touching him and Maxwell’s expertise. Maxwell’s kiss is forceful and when he pulls away to catch his breath Haley resists, not wanting the contact to end.
Haley knows this feeling growing inside him is lust and that is bad. He knows letting his body take control of his mind won’t end well, so he tries not to like it.
He really tries.
The pleasurable dull pressure of Maxwell’s teeth grazing the corners of his mouth turns to a sharp pain when his superior pushes his teeth down hard on his lips.
“Ow,” Haley hisses
He pulls away, but Maxwell roughly pulls him back closer.
"Did I hurt you ?” Maxwell asks, his sweet smoky breath hot in his face.
“You bit--”
“Hurt me back,” Maxwell says in an even voice before going into another rough kiss.
Not breaking their connection, Maxwell closes his fist around Haley’s tie and pulls him up onto one knee. Without speaking he moves Haley until he is in kneeling in front of the sitting Maxwell.
For the first time they are eye to eye.
Maxwell puts the hand with the pipe behind Haley’s neck and pulls him in. Despite his roughness he is careful to keep the hot end of the pipe from burning him.
With the other hand Maxwell untucks Haley’s shirt and runs his hands over his bare waist. Haley tries to jerk away and Maxwell moves his hand away. He takes a fistful of his tied back blonde hair and his teeth come down on Haley’s lips again.
“Ah-”
“Did I hurt you?” Maxwell asks, pulling Haley’s arm so he won’t back away. “Hurt me back.”
Maxwell forces Haley’s face closer to his and bites his lip again. He almost breaks skin and his mouth starts to sting .
Haley
realizes Maxwell is getting something out of hurting him and won’t let
him go until he gets what he wants. Haley's excitement turns to
something between anger and fear. This had gone too far.
He tries to shove Maxwell away, but Maxwell grabs him by the wrist and sucks on his pulsing lips.
“Stop,” Haley says.
"Make me,” Maxwell growls.
He was teasing him just like Harlow and his friends had. Maxwell had probably been just like Harlow and his friends in high school. Arrogant and superior. This makes Haley suddenly angry. He jerks one of his arms out of Maxwell’s grasp, takes the man’s pipe and pushes the hot end into Maxwell’s wrist.
“FUCK!”
This move surprises Maxwell and causes him to release Haley. Maxwell revels in the rush of the numbing, pulsing pain, but recovers before Haley can leave. He grabs him by his shirt and pulls him back until they are chest to chest.
“I like that,” Maxwell whispers. ”Fuck, I liked that.”
Maxwell kisses him tenderly on the sides of his mouth and from this new proximity Haley can feel Maxwell getting hard.
Haley knows this has gone too far.
“I’m sorry--”
“Don’t be,” Maxwell interrupts
A knock on the door causes Haley to jump, Maxwell quickly presses a button on his syndicate and a series of small silver fans that had been set up around the room begin to dissipate the smoke. Maxwell pulls a screen of the security camera over to him to see Corp. St. John outside at the intercom. His holographic image rests between Maxwell and Haley’s face.
“I’m busy St. John,” Maxwell says into the intercom.
“Sir, your transport to the Airfield is here,” St. John reports.
“Thank you, Corporal,” Maxwell says impatiently.
Maxwell stands and readjusts his tie and uniform jacket. He smooths his dark hair back before placing the cap back on.
“Remember what I said about St. John,” Maxwell says looking into the mirror on the wall, suddenly all business “You will have to obey that shit eating motherfucker but I want to hear everything he does.”
Haley nods as he stands.
Maxwell surveys the room behind him to see the contents of his desk strewn on the floor and the overturned furniture he’d taken his earlier frustrations out on.
“Can you clean this up ?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you,” Maxwell says as he unlocks the door and disappears on the other side.