“Dismissed!”
With that one word Colonel White brought what had been an embarrassing meeting to an end. The two men standing to attention before his desk saluted, turned on their heels and marched out of the room.
As the door slid closed behind them both men sagged as tension ebbed from their bodies.
“Damn and effing blast!” the dark-haired man growled under his breath. “I’ve had just about as much of this as I can take.”
His fair-haired companion shrugged. “Coulda been worse, Paul.”
“How? Exactly?” Captain Scarlet demanded angrily. “I haven’t felt like such a ‘naughty boy’ since I was hauled up before my father, aged about six, for giving the dog a bath with all of Mum’s fancy bath gels.”
“That doesn’t sound too horrendous a crime,” Captain Blue said, intrigued by this rare insight into his friend’s home life. “I’m damn sure I’ve done much worse.”
Scarlet grimaced. “I did it in the main bathroom, made a helluva mess, and left the taps running when the dog jumped out and I chased him through the house. The bath overflowed and part of the kitchen ceiling came down.”
Trying to keep a straight face, Blue said, “Yeah, I can imagine General Metcalfe going just the tiniest bit postal over that.”
“I was grounded for the entire summer: no cricket, no swimming, no nothing.”
“Well, look on the bright side: we’re not grounded this time.”
“Will you stop trying to be so bloody cheerful,” Scarlet snarled, as he increased his speed along the corridor away from the Colonel’s ready room.
“Then stop acting like a spoilt brat,” Blue called after him, as he lengthened his stride to catch up.
Scarlet stopped dead and the two collided.
“You say that to me? You?”
“Takes one to know one,” Blue said calmly.
Scarlet glared at him and they continued on in silence, automatically taking the route towards the Amber Room.
Eventually, bursting with a frustrated sense of injustice, Scarlet exclaimed: “Okay, he has every right to tell us what to do when we’re on duty, but I’ll be damned if he has the right to order us about when we’re off duty.”
“I rather think you’ll find that he does.”
“Not about our private lives!” Scarlet retorted. “Surely you can’t agree with him?”
“We signed up for this, Paul; nobody forced us to. We knew that the regulations said no fraternisation and we were fraternising.”
“We were sitting in the Amber Room keeping Rhapsody and Symphony company while they were on standby. What was wrong with that? It hardly qualifies as an orgy.”
“Yes, but-”
“No but! The Colonel’s just being unreasonable; you won’t convince me otherwise, Adam. There was nothing out of order.” Scarlet snorted angrily at the remembered rebuke and continued, “He can make even the most innocent thing sound sordid – ’canoodling on the sofa’, indeed!”
“Well, it might’ve looked that way over the video-conference phone.”
“We were under the mistletoe! It is what you’re supposed to do under mistletoe, you moron!”
Blue sighed; he knew there was no arguing with Scarlet when he was in such a combative mood. “Well, whatever… we’ve had our cards marked and had better stay out of the Amber Room for the rest of today, at least. What say we get a coffee and some cake? Or tea,” he amended hastily, as his friend pulled a face.
“You’re paying then.”
“Don’t I always?”
Sitting in the canteen nursing a cup of tea and a toasted English muffin, Scarlet broke the long silence to say: “How much leave have you got left?”
Blue swallowed his mouthful of coffee and replied, “Last time I looked, I had about 9 months due to me – why?”
“Me too. Let’s go and spend Christmas somewhere off base with the girls.”
“Is that a magic muffin?”
“What?”
“Well, something’s sent you delusional. In case you’ve forgotten: we didn’t get leave this year.”
“Ah, but I am Christmas duty officer and I think I can fiddle the rota. Look, if I draft Captains Auburn and Saffron up here and two of the standby Angel pilots, there’d be no gaps in the cover. They’re always keen to do spells on Cloudbase, so why not make their Christmas by posting them up? Then we can go somewhere.”
“Where? Exactly?” Blue said, deliberately echoing Scarlet’s earlier sarcasm. “Everywhere’s going to be booked solid, you know.”
Scarlet gave him an exasperated glance. “You’re the one who always tells me that with enough money you can get anything. So, we can find a nice place to go…”
“You mean you’ve suddenly come into a pot of money? If I’d known that, you’d have paid for the coffee.”
“Don’t be obtuse, Adam. You have the money and I have the authority to get us off this dump.”
“You really are miserable today, aren’t you?”
“No… why should I be?”
“Can’t imagine. All right, let’s assume you can wangle this escape from Cloudbase and we can find somewhere to go; you know what the result will be, don’t you? We’ll spend the rest of our careers at Spectrum’s Archive Centre in Siberia…” Blue paused reflectively. “Well, the girls and I will… you will just get grounded on base forever except when you’re on a mission.”
“Don’t be so melodramatic.”
Blue pushed his empty mug away and sighed. He listened to Scarlet continuing to expound his madcap scheme for some minutes, and then gave a surreptitious glance at the clock on the wall. “Okay,” he said, “if you’re determined to get us all carpeted, let’s go and see if the girls have leave to spare and want to risk their futures in Spectrum indulging you in your hare-brained proposal. But I’m warning you, if they don’t go for it, then I’m not interested. The thought of a week away with you on our own when you’re in this mood does not appeal.”
“Of course they’ll want to come with us. Besides, I’m not going to explain to them how I’ll arrange for our time off. So, don’t you let on.” Grinning, Scarlet picked up the tray and, on their way out, he returned it to the rack. “Any ideas about where we could go? Somewhere with some sunshine? A beach holiday would be nice. Or how about skiing?”
“Wherever it is, if Karen’s coming, there had better be shops…”
As they approached the Amber Room, Scarlet was still in full flow about locations and venues and so he walked into the room ahead of a strangely reluctant Blue, without paying too much attention.
“Happy birthday, Captain Scarlet!” a dozen voices cried out as he walked in.
He stared in astonishment at the assembled personnel, all of them wearing party hats, and his jaw dropped open when he realised one of them – party hat at a rakish angle – was Colonel White.
Rhapsody came to his side, laughing up into his astonished face. She handed him a hat and a glass of non-alcoholic champagne. “Happy birthday, Paul.”
“I thought you’d all forgotten,” he admitted, blushing slightly.
“As if we would,” Rhapsody assured him. “We wanted it to be a surprise,” she explained, “but we couldn’t get it ready as you wouldn’t leave the Amber Room. So, I suggested to Adam that he ask the colonel to call you away for a meeting. Why else do you think he went to fetch us those cappuccinos from the canteen?”
Scarlet turned to his friend, standing meekly by his side.
“Just you wait, Svenson…” The smile on Scarlet’s face belied the threat of his words.
“I couldn’t know that when he called through, he’d see what he saw,” Blue reasoned, adding with a grin, “Happy birthday, Paul.”
“Come on, let’s party!” Melody Angel called. “Someone start the music and, Captain Scarlet, I claim the first dance with you!”
Scarlet glanced down at Rhapsody. “As long as I get the last one with you?” he said, with an affectionate smile.
“Who else?” she replied, returning the smile and just a hint of a wink.
“Let’s dance, Nolie!” he exclaimed happily, and he gave Melody his hand as one of his favourite songs started to play.
Author’s Notes:
Happy Birthday, Captain Scarlet!
I didn’t think I’d get an idea this year but,
somewhere in my imagination, something was lurking, I guess! I hope you enjoyed this little piece of fanfiction fluff.
Thanks to Hazel Köhler for a speedy beta-read, any mistakes still in the text are mine and are due to last minute tweaking.
And thanks to Chris Bishop for – well - for everything! Where would we be without Colonel Chris?
Happy Christmas, everyone.
Marion Woods
09 December 2020