Chase, Guy, Turnbull; Arch To The Sky; G; 195 words

"...really?"

"Yes, sir."

"Laurent."

"Indeed."

Mike Chase leaned waaaaaaay back, glancing behind Turnbull to get a good, long, disbelieving look at Guy Laurent.

It took a moment for Guy to notice, and when he did, he tipped Chase a lazy salute as though he was expecting to be watched.

Chase's eyebrows climbed, and he leaned slowly forward again to look back at Turnbull.

"I assure you, I have asked myself many times if it was merely an elaborate hallucination on my part, but he was, indeed, a short-lived RCMP recruit."

He couldn't begin to fathom how the Hell that chronic miscreant could've cleared the requirements to make it to Depot, but Chase was suddenly picturing one or two uptight instructors he didn't care for having to deal with the man. Guy Laurent, drunken destruction incarnate, stuffed in a uniform and shoved into a troop, looking for all the world like any other recruit. Sheep in wolf's clothing. Chase had to think winding up that jack in the box resulted in a fantastic punch to the face for one of those old guard types before it was all over.

"How--"

The question unfinished, Chase was laughing before he knew what hit him.