Chapter Text
With the signal jammer down, the remaining Militia troops were able to link back up, call for backup, and launch a counter-attack. Lastimosa only departed BT briefly to confer with Commander Edwards, then again when everything was over so someone could finally look at his knee. Apparently, it was in worse shape than he’d thought, and he was going to need medical leave. Not too long, he hoped, but he knew it could’ve been worse. He had been walking on the damn thing.
He lost track of Cooper sometime during all of this; the Rifleman had been whisked away to see a medic when they joined up with the other troops. Lastimosa wasn’t able to ask about him until he was getting examined by a medic himself. It took long enough to make him nervous, but eventually someone reported back that Cooper was alive, well, and looking at some bed rest himself. Lastimosa found him later, sitting on a cot and shoveling food that wasn’t energy bars into his mouth. “Glad to see you in one piece, Coop,” Lastimosa said.
Cooper straightened up immediately, looking first formal, then relieved. “You too, Captain. Surprised they let you out of bed.”
Lastimosa laughed. “I’m a Captain. They can’t stop me. Besides, I’m not putting weight on the leg.” Someone would probably still yell at him for moving around, but this was important. “I didn’t get the chance to thank you for what you did back there.”
Cooper’s ears immediately went red. “Uhm…you’re welcome. I mean, pretty sure you did most of the heavy lifting…”
“That’s not true and we both know it.” Lastimosa sat down on the edge of Cooper’s cot. “You did good today. You should be proud.”
The blush was spreading from Cooper’s ears to his cheeks. He cleared his throat, not quite making eye contact but doing a good job of faking it. Lastimosa might not have noticed if Cassie didn’t do the same thing. “Thank you, sir. I’m…I’m really glad I could help.”
It was clear the poor kid wasn’t used to attention, and Lastimosa didn’t want to make his embarrassment worse. But he had to ask. “You ever considered applying for pilot training? We could use good men like you.”
“Oh, uh…actually…yeah, I did. They, uhm…” Cooper shrugged, clearly trying to play it off as no big deal. “…turned me down.”
Huh. “Did they say why?”
“Not to me. It’s no big deal, I mean…I know, the program is tough. They must be selective.”
It was true; the program was very selective, more so now that they had the troop numbers and support structures to be picky. But from where Lastimosa was standing, Cooper had all the building blocks of a good pilot: determined, cool under pressure, able to roll with the punches, and very good at staying alive. What could be barring him from entry?
I’ll have to ask around about that.
“Well…maybe they’ll give you a promotion. Bit of R&R at the very least.”
Cooper chuckled. “I wouldn’t say no to that one. Hopefully, you’ll get some too.”
That was all but guaranteed, with the shape Lastimosa’s knee was in. Not that he would be spending all of it relaxing; there was plenty he could do from a chair. Starting with digging up Jack Cooper’s application for the pilot training.
No aptitude for pilot combat training exhibited.
That was all it said. So, he went to the top, riding his wheelchair down to the administrative offices as soon as he could.
“He probably wasn’t anything special.” The metal of Irene Lockhart’s prosthetic hand made her keystrokes especially pronounced. Lastimosa didn’t think he’d ever seen the personnel officer away from her desk. Some of the other guys joked she slept there. “We get a lot of guys like that. Not bad, but better suited in other combat roles. We need good Rifleman just as much as we need pilots, you know.”
“What kind of testing did you put him through?”
“Aptitude and personality exam, same as everyone else.” Lockhart raised an eyebrow at the skeptical look on Lastimosa’s face. “We have a lot of people registering, Tai. We can’t individually interview everyone.”
“I get that, it’s just…” Lastimosa already got the impression that Cooper was modest to a fault. He’d probably undersold his abilities in a quiz to avoid sounding overconfident. “…that’s not what I saw out there. That kid’s something special.”
Lockhart sighed. “Listen, you want to encourage him to re-apply, go for it, but I have a feeling the result’s going to be the same. Unless something drastic has changed about his combat experience…”
Nothing hadn’t, not that Lastimosa had noticed. Even him putting in a good word about Cooper’s performance wouldn’t be much; at the end of the day, he was still a class three Rifleman.
Unless…
“Purely hypothetical question.”
Lockhart sighed heavily. “Shit.” To Lastimosa’s surprise, she actually got up from her chair, out from behind her desk, and started walking away. “If we’re going to talk hypothetical situations, I don’t want to be on-duty. Break room’s this way.”
Lastimosa waited until they were in the break room, Lockhart had sat down with a can of pop and a plastic container of vegetables, and until some other guy had left the room before speaking: “What if he got some training from a third party?”
“You mean training in the highly controlled combat simulators that we only have a handful of because they’re technically stolen and really difficult to reverse-engineer?” Lockhart cracked open her can. “The simulators that are only to be used by acting pilots or trainees?”
“Maybe. If we didn’t say that’s where he was getting the extra training and I could…” He shrugged. “I don’t know, put in a good word for him, maybe…have someone look at him personally?”
“All of that sounds like a good way to lose your job. I know, you old guard soldiers think you can’t be fired, just because Briggs and Doctor DePaul like you, but the rules have to be equally enforced. What’s got you so interested in this guy, anyway?”
“He saved my life, Irene. I mean that. He’s a good kid with a lot of potential. I just…I have a feeling.” He ignored the way she rolled her eyes at that comment. “If someone just gives him a chance, he could be something great.”
Irene pinched the bridge of her nose. “Hypothetically. If you really think this guy is worth the risk, then additional combat training would be helpful. And with your rank and general standing, you could probably get him a leg up in the application process. But you could also get caught, and I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes if I did.”
“I’ll take that into account.”
And he did.
He didn’t take it into account for very long, but he did take it into account.
The thing was, Lastimosa’s gut instincts were rarely wrong. Cooper could be a huge asset to the SRS if someone just gave him a chance. Lastimosa was in the best position to do that. Then he learned that Cooper’s unit was on shore leave and that, after all was said and done, Lastimosa and BT would be assigned to their ship. That was all the evidence he needed.
This is a sign. It has to be.
Lockhart wasn’t wrong about it being a risk. But it was a risk Lastimosa was willing to take. So, when he got the chance, he hunted Cooper down.
“Did you want to be a pilot?” he asked once the pleasantries were over.
Cooper looked surprised. “I mean…yeah. I did, I guess I just…didn’t cut it. Why?”
“Do you still want to?”
This time, Cooper didn’t reply. From the look in his eyes, he’d already worked out what Lastimosa was about to offer him and was just having a hard time believing it. “Thing is, I see potential in you. And I don’t want that potential go to go waste. So…” He leaned forward in his chair and smiled. “How do you feel about bending some rules and getting you into a cockpit?”
Cooper’s mouth opened in shock. “I…c-can’t you get in trouble for that? I don’t…”
“Cooper.” Lastimosa reached out and rested a hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I want to know what you want.”
There was a pause. Cooper swallowed nervously, a blush starting to spread down his ears. After a second, he looked Lastimosa in the eyes. “I do want it, sir. More than anything. But…I don’t want you to get in trouble on my account.”
“Then we won’t get caught.” Lastimosa grinned and gave Cooper’s shoulder a squeeze. “I want this for you, too. So let’s get it done, yeah?” He gave Cooper’s shoulder one last squeeze, then leaned back and pointed at him. “I’m not gonna go easy on you, you know that? It’s going to be hard work.”
Cooper nodded. “I know. I know, I’ll work hard, I’ll…” He was smiling, slowly, but bright and excited. “I won’t let you down. Are you…?”
“I’m sure. How’s your leg feeling?”
“It’s doing okay…why?”
“We can start today if you’re feeling up to it.”
The look on Cooper’s face was worth any possible risk. “I’m feeling up to it. Definitely.”
“That’s the spirit. Come on.” Lastimosa grinned at him and started for the training room. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The look on Cooper’s face made any potential risk worth it; excited and determined, the same look of determination Lastimosa saw in his eyes on the battlefield.
Cooper would have a long road ahead of him, that was for sure. But something told Lastimosa that he would be just fine.