Chapter 64 Very special gift for Sarge

What Luke says has worked very well: live reporting on current events, current numbers of survivors, numbers of unvaccinated. Where are which cities and areas as evaluation points. How far along was the clean-up of the sectors, etc. There were games, movies, soaps, comics about the epidemic. 

What Luke couldn't resist, there was a series of action figures with a special limited edition of 10 pieces of a 1 to 1 detailed model of the EXO suit from Sarge. Luke picked up 9 and found out that one of them had been given to Carla's daughter. The other model of the Exo was not detailed and came in different versions. As an exo, as a monster etc. Saskia asked him what he wanted with all the models he had placed in the empty room. 

He explained to her his idea for Sarge's birthday present. So he often sat at the model and tinkered with it. In the evenings, when Saskia came to visit, she asked him. Whether he once had a crush on Leo. Luke was honest and told her that he had a crush on her at school. But when she showed no interest in him and then started dating Eddi, he had left her. Luke often didn't understand Saskia's world. 

She dragged things around with her for a long time, which she attached to his bed. Luke himself couldn't make sense of it. One evening, Saskia invited Leo over to Luke's house to talk about Sarge's present from class. Saskia tried, but Leo blocked it. 

That made him think. Until he saw her with Ted three weeks later. That eased Luke's world. 

The class decided to give the Sarge a dance piece, a re-enactment of the video they had seen. Relieved for Luke, Lisa signed up for the role of Liz and she drew Edgar, her friend in the class, as her dance partner.

Luke used the time they were practicing to create color schemes. Until at one point Liz disrupted the class, even though Sarge wasn't there. She stared at what was happening. She had a very big WTF written on her face. 

Lina told her what they were doing.Liz looked at her, walked over to Luke and pulled the cell phone from under his face.

"Ey..." 

Saskia looked at her scrutinizingly.

"Tell me what it's about and I'll give it back to you." 

" Aunt Lis ... Saskia will ..." 

Liz looked at her.

" Talk!"

Luke sighed.

"Sarge's birthday is the day after tomorrow. Aunt April had his file open on her tablet when she got distracted by Ethan telling a dirty story. That's when I saw the date."

She looked at him, handed him back his phone, and fell disturbingly silent.

"When is he coming back?"

"Uh, the day after tomorrow, we got free periods. "

She slunk out of the window like a cat without saying anything.

"Is it good or bad that she's so quiet?" asked Saskia.

"In any case, she hasn't broken or hit anything, so I'd say she's thinking about what to get at the last minute."

"Then I'll be interested to see what she comes up with," she said.

Two days later, Sarge came in as usual with a coffee and a cigarette.

"Before we start, let me finish these two. I landed two hours ago, got the paperwork done, had a chance to wash up and change." The class whispered and waited for Sarge to finish his smoke and throw the butt into the empty cup. He sat down on the edge of the table.

He watched the class.

"So, what's going on? Huh? " 

Leo, Lisa and Ted stood up. Lina took a box out of a bag, which they carried to the teacher's desk. 

"We took the best cake we could find." 

They lifted the box and inside was a small cake in the shape of a cat. 

Sarge looked at it, he was beaming.

"Thanks kids, that's a nice cake" He took a picture of it. 

" It's all for her Sarge. " said Lina.

Sarge looked at the class.

" Well, I'll have to take you to the burger joint later as a thank you."

"But we're not done yet, we still have something for her Sarge," Leo continued.

Sarge looked at them.

 Everyone moved the tables aside and Lisa put on a dress over her gym clothes and Ted put on a jacket. 

"We wanted to show them some of our best dancing."

Leo saw that Sarge was completely confused, there was a knock on the door, everyone looked and Liz came in. 

"Hello!" came from her. Sarge looked at the window and then at the door. 

"Okay..." The class was quiet as a mouse. 

Liz came in, also wearing her BDU. Leo watched, looking at Saskia, who was watching her too. 

Leo looked at Liz again. She was nervous.

He pulled out his cell phone and picked it up.

"So... Congratulations on the birth. " she began. 

"Come to me Liz, you're a gift to me," Sarge replied.

Leo saw that something had just broken with Liz. She must have come up with a thousand scenarios. 

Sarge went to her and hugged her, giving her a kiss.

"You're enough for me Liz." 

She woke from her broken state and pressed herself against him. Then she broke away.

" I have to tell you at least once."

Sarge looked at her. "Okay, I'm ready."

Luke watched intently. Liz took a deep breath. Took a step back.

"Come to me!" 

She had her eyes closed, then she opened one and looked at Sarge, who was looking at her silently. It was quiet, everyone was looking at her. Panic appeared on her face and she crouched down, putting her head between her knees and her arms around it.

"She's panicking...same posture as when Sarge was in Vienna," Luke muttered. 

Sarge looked at her, Luke couldn't tell what he was thinking. He crouched down in front of her and put his hand on her head.

"Liz..." 

She shook her head. He sighed.

"Liz, where are we going to live?"

"I have a house ..." she said softly.

"But you're sleeping ..."

She lifted her head, Luke couldn't see her face.

Sarge sighed. 

"Where?"

"Next to Sue, on the other side of Dad is Mei and April's ..."

Luke froze. Saskia looked at him.

Leo leaned towards Ted. 

"My dad wonders who lives there, the yard is full of spare parts and motorcycle tires."

Sarge stroked his head.

"If I move in with them, I can't have anything like that, you should know that."

She nodded. 

"And the pool is full of beer cans and cigarette butts ..." Sarge looked at Leo.

"I'm just saying what I see every day when I come to class, Sarge. My mom was asked by the other neighbors if she wanted to join a petition to find the owner. Because the lawn is overgrown, the tree is half on the property of the other two houses. The list has 90 points. "

Liz grumbled. Sarge gave Liz a long look.

"Fine, I'll move in with you." 

She held out her arms.

He sighed and pulled her to him so she was pressing her face against him and stroked her head.

"How much is in there?"

"Just a couple boxes of weapon modules and a workbench."

Sarge stood up, Liz desperately trying to hold on, looking at him with a bright red face. 

He sat down on the edge of the table and patted beside him. She sat down next to him.

"Right, kids, now for your event."

Luke heard it crunch under his foot, the floor gave way and he sank his foot into the floor up to his ankles, lost his footing and fell to the ground. 

He looked at his foot in irritation and the others laughed. 

"Luke, watch where you're stepping, this building is old and was used by the MP for a while before the school came here."

He pulled his foot out. The others prepared for the dance. Luke crouched down and looked into the hole, he saw something in it and reached in.

"What if there's a dead rat in there?" came quietly from Bill.

Luke felt something solid and pulled out a vacuum-packed CD for a camera. He turned it in his hand.

"Our dad has this at home too, he says they're old recording memory cards. "

Luke glanced at Saskia, saw they were still ready.

"Sergeant? How do you play something like that?"

Sarge looked at him. 

"It's a cd," he cocked his head to the side. 

"Cassette recorders are rare these days, the portable ones don't have a slot for it, the army versions do, to get better info in combat. I've heard about the ruin scouts."

Luke thought about it and looked at the CD, he had his tablet at home, as if he had to wait. He reached for his cell phone and pressed send video. 

He looked up and met Liz staring at him in horror.

Sarge looked at her, then at Luke.

"Better this way, you should have told the others anyway. "

"I wanted to surprise everyone," she said quietly. 

It took a few minutes and Gitte opened the door, everyone flinched and stared at her. She approached quietly. Liz stood up, lowering her head, Sarge held her tightly.

"Can you wait until the class has played this?"

She looked at Sarge, then at the class, it was quiet as a mouse. Luke looked around, saw they were scared. 

" Explain to me one reason why I should wait. " 

" Reinterpretation of the dance from before. "

" George ... She should be somewhere else now. At an appointment," she looked at Liz.

" Appointment for? " 

"She has an appointment with a therapist for her freak-out George and ..."

Sarge looked at her Luke thought it was gross that Sarge was facing Gitte like that. 

"She's skipped all but the first one."

" Let her finish it, then appointment. "

" No " she grabbed Liz by the arm. " I'm not letting this slide like her father." 

Sergeant pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. Gitte looked at him in silence, a vein forming on her forehead. 

"What are you doing?" she growled.

"I'm having the appointment postponed."

Gitte growled and did a perfect kick like Luke had seen in the Tak Wan Do fight, what shocked him more was that Sarge was holding her by the foot and Gitte was trying to pull her foot away, to no effect. Sarge pressed dial.

"Tach, give me the therapist in charge of Ms. Schorndorf, yes the little one yes."

Luke had filmed it out of habit. Sarge let her go, Gitte kicked at the cell phone with others without hitting it, which infuriated her.

"Yeah, hi. It's about the date, yeah, I was told she missed it, yeah, it's more my fault. Yes. " 

"George! You can't coddle her!" She swatted at him and he grabbed her hand and held it tight. He looked at Gitte.

"Yes, was her mother, yes, how about I attend the meeting? " He listened, Gitte tugged at her hand. 

"George, let go of me!"

" Fine." He hung up and looked at Gitte. 

"If you can behave yourself."

She snorted. 

" Gitte, look around you."

She stared at him, then looked at the class, she had really startled the class.

"What am I supposed to see?" 

He let go of her and tapped the tip of her nose.

" You're scaring them, Gitte, my class wanted to show me the dance Liz and I had that time. When?" He looked at her.

"I don't know. How should I know?"

 "Then look at your cell phone, then you'll know why Liz is here."

" It's in the car, I was in a hurry."

Sarge took the remote, clicked on it and the video started at the point where Liz came in. 

"You watch it to the end." 

"Tz," she looked at the wall. Luke continued filming, her face slipping. She looked at Liz, who had gone back into a crouch. Sarge turned off the projector. She walked over to Liz, hugging her from behind.

"Honey, I'm worried, you've been skipping meetings, for two days you've just been silent and staring ahead." 

Luke heard a sniffle and Liz turned to her mother and hugged her. 

 He stopped filming and sent the video.

Saksia looked at him in horror.

"Why?" she asked.

Luke thought about it and looked at the answers on his cell phone. Babsi was the first to answer.

"Gitte, Grandma Babsi said."

Gitte looked at him punitively.

"What did she say?"

Luke swallowed briefly. 

"I told her that you're an old hen." Babsi stretched her head into the classroom and grinned at Gitte. 

"Even an old hen." 

Babsi came in and patted Gitte on the head. 

"You're no better than your daughter, Gitte."

She looked at Babsi venomously. Babsi grinned. 

" May I remind you of your seventeenth birthday, so you're slurring your words?"

Gitte jumped up and covered her mouth. 

"I dare you," she growled, while Babsi grinned. 

"She's going, okay? He's going too. That makes everything better, okay?" 

Gitte looked at her and nodded.

"So, do you know what we're going to do now?"

Gitte shook her head. 

"We're going to buy furniture for Liz."

Gitte looked at her questioningly, then looked at Liz.

Babsi put an arm around Gitte. 

"First we'll buy the bed," and smiled.

Liz pressed herself deeper between her knees.

Sarge sighed, pulled Liz up, let her sit next to him and put his hand on her head.

"Are you two ready?" he looked at Babsi and Gitte.

"Why George?" 

"Well," he pointed at the class. 

" What is it?"

" I can take an apartment on the other side of the base, a high-rise apartment with a balcony. "

" Uh-huh ..."

" Then I'll take Liz there with me. I had one there once, they have access rights. I'll get a list made up. "

"I dare you," came from Babsi.

"It has a modern touch with terracotta walls and designer furniture."

"Oh oh, my father used to have an apartment like that in London," came from Saksia.

Bill nodded in agreement.

Luke couldn't imagine Saskia in something like that. 

" Babsi looked at Sarge scrutinizingly and looked at Gitte." He was serious, Gitte. We're going shopping." She pulled Gitte with her, stopped at the door and looked at Sarge.

"It's going to be a big bed."

"Fine by me."

She smiled. "Welcome to the George family," she laughed and pulled Gitte out.

Saskia raised her hand. 

"Sergeant, why did that sound like you married Liz now?"

Liz winced. Sarge smiled and stroked her head.

"Sarge? "

"I just wanted to..." came from Liz.

Sarge glanced at the class.

"Now that we're on break, what do you guys think about a trip to the burger joint?"

"What about the show?" asked Lisa.

" You can perform it at the wedding, there's no way around it anyway."

Liz shivered. He put his arm around her.

"Just breathe, Liz. At least you're the first of your sisters."

She continued to shake.

"Come on, I'll buy you two some burgers. Liz needs a cigarette and a beer."

A little disappointed, the class left, but the mood improved when they got all the burgers they wanted.