Author: L

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: 2002- I do not hold copyright on any of the characters from the movie Black Hawk Down. I do, however, own the rights to all original characters as well as the plot of this fic.

Feedback: Always

Archive: Please, ask first.

*************

Had making coffee been so bad? Had he really wanted to see combat this desperately? If you'd asked Specialist Grimes a few short hours earlier he would have said, without hesitating, "Yes." And maybe, he still would without regard to the deadly rounds whizzing wildly around him.

Now as the night gave way to dawn, as he rode towards safety with the rest of the wounded he thought about how it had all started, how he had been caught up in something that mark the last 24 hours as significant, a event that not only would give the world pause but something that had made a profound change within him.

*******************

"That's what you wanted, right Grimes?"

"Yeah! Hell Yeah!" Those were the words that he would remember until his dying day, he thought about them as he had watched the dazzling surf of the ocean transform into the dilapidated streets of Mogadishu. Columns of inky black smoke poured towards the sky at their approach, and finally the curiosity had gotten the better of him and he asked the reason.

"Signals to the militia that we're coming.." Was shouted back to him, he simply nodded and sat back, noting the quite before the storm in side the Black Hawk. His eyes automatically went to Eversman and there was a apprehension there that couldn't be hidden, a nervousness that seemed to fuel his own. He was nervous....Really just scared shitless but he had confidence in his training. He was a Ranger.

With Bakara Market looming ahead he prepared for his immersion into a hostile zone, prepared to put his training to use. And then without anymore warning than Eversman yelling, "Go!....Go!..", he was reaching for the rope that hung from the helicopter.

"Hey, Grimesy! No fear!"

 "Oh, yeah, RIGHT!"

There was nothing but the chop of blades through hot searing air as he slid downward, slid to the hard packed street below. Within seconds he found himself positioned beside Waddell. His heart hammering wildly inside his chest, threatening to break through his ribs at any moment.

" Why aren't you shooting?"

"We're not being shot at yet!"

"How can you tell?"

"A hiss means it's close. If you hear a pop, then......"

The whiz and pop of hot metal flying so close they disturbed the air near his body, had him cutting his eyes hard to the other man.

"Now they're shooting at us!" Waddell shouted, firing his rifle at the dark forms running for cover behind crumbling walls. He followed suit, firing in quick burst at any available hostile target. There was a moment, when one of the bullets fired from his gun erupted into one of the Sammie's chest, that he tried to imagine what it felt like. He tried to imagine what having your life ended so suddenly felt like, but the thought was fleeting as he turned his fire on another hostile position. This was so much of what he had heard from other men, other Rangers, but nothing he really expected. It wasn't nice and neat, go in and complete a mission, it was loud and chaotic.

************

In the past hours Grimes had managed to avoid being blow to pieces twice. His body being hurled through the air and landing with punishing impact both instances, debris raining down on him. His right foot had taken the brunt of one of the impacts, now injured, and throbbing he stood with a hand grinder reducing a hand full of coffee beans to a aromatic ground. This was his nitch, his talent, and he didn't mind it in the least. Not now, not knowing that he was a Ranger, above all else, that just happen to brew a decent cup of coffee.

Fini