#could be!

Gale exchanged a look with DeMarco and raised his eyebrows, and DeMarco grinned back. Oh, so that's how it is.

Egan began to drive them back, giving them the tour as they went - runway, taxiway, hard stands - and finally the control tower, checkerboarded against the sky. Egan parked the jeep and took the stairs two at a time up to the observation level. There were four women, stationed inside the glasshouse, each of them wearing headsets and watching the runway from their stations. The single woman standing turned around and glimpsed the three of them through the glass, her neutral face deepening into a frown before she excused herself and stepped outside to the tower's observation deck. (She looked like she was ready to run interference, the way she was standing between Egan and the door.)

But Egan, it seemed, was ready, his hands already up, "Don't shoot, I'm just giving the new fellows a tour. Buck, Ben, this Lieutenant Callaway, our Control Officer. Lieutenant Callaway, this is Major Gale Cleven, and Captain Benny DeMarco."

The lieutenant nodded, keeping her arms firmly crossed over her chest. She was around their age, with dark hair pulled back into a tight roll and was wearing trousers - practical, probably, for the wind they got up here. She had a way of standing that told Buck that she was not in the business of being easily moved - and staring down John with an expression that could only mean that the pain in the ass feeling was mutual. "Sir."

"Does Lieutenant Callaway have a first name, or do you just not feel like being neighborly with it?" Gale asked, trying to be pleasant, looking between the two of them with faint but growing interest.

"It's Cordelia, but I think Lieutenant will be just fine, for now, Major."

Gale nodded, filing that away with John's earlier remarks. "Heard and acknowledged, Lieutenant. Nice to put a face with a voice after the landing. Looking forward to working with you."

Callaway nodded, and returned to her post, though she continued glancing over her shoulder until she was convinced they were all really leaving.

"She seems nice," DeMarco ventured, glancing again at Cleven as they headed down the stairs and back to Egan's jeep.

Egan scoffed. "Nice, ha. She's a goddamn iceberg. Had me written up for handing out a few compliments to her crew one night - said I was unprofessional, and a threat to group morale."

"The way you go through girls, Bucky, you would be," DeMarco said with a grin. "They take stuff like that personally, you know."

Egan rolled his eyes. "Remind me why the hell I'm friends with you jokers?" He looked at the two of them and scowled at two very knowledgeable smiles. "Oh, get out of my jeep. You're walking back." He picked up Gale's flight bag and pitched it out of the front seat, giving DeMarco just enough time to grab his before he'd shifted the jeep into gear and roared off on his own.

"He'll be fine in an hour," Gale predicted, hefting his flight bag back over his shoulder so that he and Benny could continue their long walk back down the airfield towards the dispersal huts and crew quarters.

DeMarco watched the jeep disappear down the runway and scoffed. "So how long do you think he's wanted to fuck her?"

Gale grinned, entertained that it was that obvious to someone else, too. "Since the minute they met, I think." And I get the sense she's not the kind to fall for easy charm.

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