(Snip)

The moment Vanessa’s body impacted him, Calvin used the momentum to roll back instead of fighting it. If his arms were not holding Vanessa to him, the roll would have been far more graceful and less painful. The old statement of the bigger you are the harder you fall correctly described this situation. Calvin might be 200 plus pound of muscle but that was still 200 pound slamming into the ground. The loose dirt at the base of the cliff provided some cushion but not enough that the wind was not slightly knocked out of him.

Sucking in a breath made his chest burn as the air filled his lungs that had been pushed out by the fall and the pressure of Vanessa’s body against his. The sound was a bit like the wheezing of someone with a cold or a ninety year old man. As he laid there for a second Calvin realized nothing was broken but there would be plenty of bumps.

Calvin Marius CO

“Oh my god I thought I died,” Vanessa said pushing up from Calvin’s chest. She was sprawled over him as if it were a lazy Sunday afternoon. Pulling her hair over to one side, she looked down at him. “Anything broken,” she asked in an almost sweet tone. It was the type of tone all men learned meant there was a storm brewing under the perfect smile shining at them.

“Dying would be easier.”

Pushing off Calvin, Vanessa stood up and assumed the position all women took before they released the fury of hell on an individual.

“Oh Gail I have seen that look before. I think she is none to happy with her partner,” John commented pointing a stylus at her.

“Well he did tell her to swan dive ten feet,” Gail mused.

“Yes but he caught her. My god women are never satisfied,” John shook his head. “I mean he could have stepped to the side. He could have let her fall and scream medic. Calvin Marius is an ex-Marine. That is what they do. Fall down and rub some dirt in it. Instead he caught her like a pop fly and rolled around ten feet. I would say that is a hero move.”

“You would,” Gail rolled her eyes at him, “however I think it is about to get good. She is standing and he is breathing. Popcorn,” she asked producing a random bucket from under the table as if the were about to watch a holomovie.

Vanessa Slade CNS

Calvin scowled partly at the commentators and partly at Vanessa. “Vanessa,” Calvin let out a breath and got up from the ground rubbing his side. As far as he could tell she did not break his rib but only knocked the wind out of him. “I get it. That freaked you out but don’t let the peanut gallery over there play this up for public consumption. We won. I knew we could,” he prodded her gently.

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