Gun Range, Tuesday morning

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully's progress at the gun range was going well; although she was feeling restless. Maybe it was time for a visit off-island? Just to see her mom? And play a prank on the Lone Gunmen?... and maybe check up on Mulder?

In the meantime, there was shooting. Which helped. And showing Claudia how to do so.

[for notmyownage, but open to all]

Comments

[notmyownage]

"Right, so." Claudia looked around the gun range. "I have no idea where to start, here. I need those big headphoney things, right?"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully rubbed a smile off her lips with the side of her wrist, and said, "Yes. And the eye protection too. No reason to go deaf or worry about smoke or gunpowder in your eyes when you don't have to." She handed over a set to Claudia, and cocked her head. "Have you ever been around guns before?"

[notmyownage]

"A couple of my foster dads had them, but I mostly just made sure I wasn't near it."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Smart." Scully unloaded the clip, and popped the last cartridge out of the slide. "Here. Get a feel for the weight. And take a look at the workings. You'll be more comfortable with it that way."

[notmyownage]

"Sweet!" Claudia took the gun, weighing it in her hand. "Is it a lot heavier loaded?"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Depending on the gun, and the caliber, yes. After a while you'll definitely be able to tell the difference between a loaded and unloaded piece." Scully snorted. "Anyone who says they didn't know a gun was loaded either knows nothing about guns, or is lying. Either way, always assume it is. There could still be one bullet left in the chamber, and that won't weigh much."

[notmyownage]

"And I'm guessing leave the safety on unless you're, like, really sure you wanna shoot something?" Claudia had located the safety on the side of the gun and switched it back and forth a few times.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Definitely. As well as not pointing it at anything you don't want to shoot. They're precision devices, but accidents can happen." Scully picked up another gun, and then a cartridge. "Load it like this--" She showed how to insert the clip, and then snapped a bullet into the slide, pointing it away the whole time. "An automatic like this, you have the bullets feed into the slide, without having to re-cock the gun every time. They can jam if you don't keep them clean enough, though." She smiled suddenly. "You probably can theorize as to why."

[notmyownage]

"I'll spare you the details." Claudia continued to look over the various moving parts of the gun before picking up the clip, keeping it pointed down the range, and carefully loaded it. "So you just need to cock it the first time."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Right." Scully aimed the gun down the range, and turned her head toward Claudia. "This is the stance you should be using. Two-handed." She nodded downward. "Legs braced apart. Knees bent. There's going to be recoil, and your hands are going to shake after the first few times." She took aim, and shot down the alley, hitting the inner ring of the target.

It was... strange, to be giving the FBI entry-level agent orientation to someone here. Good, in a way. And she trusted Claudia to take this seriously. But still weird.

[notmyownage]

Claudia was suitably impressed by how confident Scully was with her weapon. She made an attempt to copy her stance. It was a little awkward. "Am I doing it right? When they've got a gun newb on TV they're always holding the gun way wrong through, like, the wrist."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully put her weapon down, and checked Claudia's hands; she'd almost had it right. "You've got your hands in the right place-- tuck your thumbs down to brace it, though," she said, picking up hers to show Claudia what she meant. "And straighten your wrists another-- oh, ten degrees, upward?" She nudged Claudia's joined hands upward, carefully. "So the recoil goes all the way up your arms, then dissipates. Do you see it?"

[notmyownage]

"Why doesn't anyone else ever explain things in terms of transference of force and momentum?" Claudia made the adjustments to her stance.

[svetocha-blooms.livejournal.com]

Her father's voice still echoed in her head reminding her to keep up her practice on a fairly regular basis. So after spending some time working out in the gym, Dru cleaned up and headed over to the range.

She nodded at the other girls before loading her gun and settling in for some target shooting. While she wasn't an expert marksman, it was pretty obvious that she was comfortable with what she was doing.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

On a break in between shooting, Scully watched Dru for a while. Then commented, "You're pretty proficient at this."

[svetocha-blooms.livejournal.com]

Dru shrugged a shoulder as she reloaded. "Gran taught me how to handle a .22 when I was nine," she explained. "Then when I was twelve, Dad started teaching me everything else."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully nodded, and said, "I was just showing Claudia the basics."

[svetocha-blooms.livejournal.com]

"It's a good place to start," Dru agreed. "Make sure she doesn't shoot herself in the foot."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully's unself-conscious grin peeked out again, since she'd made that joke to Claudia already. "Claudia's far too smart to do that. But I can see her shooting someone else in the foot, and not even from malice."

[svetocha-blooms.livejournal.com]

"Nope, a bullet left in the chamber will do that quite nicely," she replied, remembering that lecture from her dad.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Thus, basics. Since I'm given to understand there's-- threats, around the island, occasionally."

[svetocha-blooms.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. I got here in January. Since then there was an invasion of these really nasty gremlins that liked to attack people," Dru told the other girl. "They were fun to hunt. And then there was the attack by Godzilla. Fortunately the giant squid helped get him out of here."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"...Godzilla. Like the movies?" Scully asked, unable to keep the utter disbelief off her face. "And a giant squid." She didn't gesture her emphatic disgust with this entire reality because you don't do that in a gun range, but she did stare at Dru with wide, shell-shocked eyes.

[svetocha-blooms.livejournal.com]

"Godzilla. And a giant squid," Dru repeated, knowing it sounded insane if you weren't there to see it. "I kept expecting subtitles to start appearing in the air as people were talking. It sounds bizarre, but it happened."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Randomly, Scully's mind goes to: "Well. That explains the cabin names for certain, then." She managed to stop gaping like a fish, squinted at Dru, willing to listen as long as there was *some* explanation to be had, somewhere. "And Godzilla was attacking... why?"