Chapter Text
I never thought I would ever let anyone touch me again, especially a doctor. I don’t know why I let you…maybe it was your soft eyes that made me relax just a little. But I still remember how soft your touch was, and how she kept asking for my permission to touch me. I never had a doctor, or a person be so gentle with me. I think I loved you at that moment.
-Simon "Ghost" Riley's letters to Dr. Laura Taylor 3/ ?
“Good job on the last mission, men. "Price spoke to the task team who had assembled around the table. Their guns rested on the table along with random bullets. A flip phone was propped up on the table, the caller ID read GENERAL SHEP. Soap had his hands around his bulletproof vest while Gaz was sitting in a chair, his arm propped up on his knee, the knee bouncing up and down nervously. While Ghost stayed in the far corner, his arms crossed over his broad chest.
“And you didn’t have to drag her onto the chopper too.” Price chuckled, looking over at Ghost.
“Thought about it,” he mumbled mostly to him but Soap heard and chuckled, shaking his head slightly.
“Yes very good work,” General Shepard voiced in via speaker on the flip phone on the table. “I always respected her. You never knew if she was going to patch the soldiers up or knock some sense into them.” He paused to let out a chuckle, echoing on the phone line. “You men don’t understand the culture of southern women. You find a somewhat sane one to settle down with.”
“Must be that American humor,” Gaz chimed in. But none of the men really understood what that meant.
“Is she in the room with you guys?” General Shepard asked.
“She will be soon, she is just settling in.” Price said.
Laura Taylor looked at herself through her phone’s camera, brushing back a stray fly of her hair from her face. The dark circles under her eyes look worse than usual, she only had about four hours of sleep last night and all of her makeup is still in her duffle bag; too tired to search for it. She looked at herself in the camera, moving the camera down to look at the outfit she picked for her first meeting with the task force. Her blonde hair was held back with a claw clip and a few strands around her tan face. She had a brown tank top on and black camo cargo pants with snakeskin cowboy boots on, the pants tucked in at the top of the boots. Good enough. She closed the camera on her iPhone, pushing it into the back of her cargo pants.
She looked around her new office. It was plenty big enough for her job. An examination table with a clean sheet on it, a small prep table, and a few random roller tables that she can store random medical supplies on. To the side there is a table with her laptop, a framed photo of her and her family, another framed photo of her lost unit (it’s hard to look at sometimes, but their presence in the photo does bring her joy some days) and a few medical books she can never leave behind. There was a simple divider in the middle of the floor, a makeshift attempt to give her a bedroom. There is a single clot on the side with her favorite throw blanket, a simple white one that is soft to the touch, her new bed for the remainder of this mission and a worn-out beige couch with a dirty pillow; she’ll have to throw that pillow out later; God only knows what it has seen in its life. Her blue duffle bag is open with various clothes, makeup, two real books and her kindle, toiletries, and various chargers for her electronics. There were many boxes of medical supplies she will need to go through and sort out, but she can do that later today or even tomorrow.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t have her own bathroom which may be a problem in the future. Thankfully, there are only four men on this side of the base. If she needs to use the shower, maybe they won’t be in there? Hopefully.
No time like the present, she needed to attend the meeting despite how tired she was; the flight was loud, and she barely got any sleep on that chopper.
She walked out of her office, closing the door behind her and walked down the narrow hallway. She heard a few voices down the hall, that is where they had to be. The door was open to the large room and she walked in, a small smile on her lips.
“Dr. Taylor,” Price greeted her. He had a gentle smile, it reminded her of her father honestly. Instead of feeling nervous, he made her feel relaxed. “Nice to meet you in person.”
She nodded, walked up to the table, holding her hands behind her back; unsure where to put them.
“Doctor, good to know you are with these men now. “Shepard spoke through the phone. She looked down to the phone. Of course, he would never show his face out here, probably too busy. She had the pleasure of meeting him once when she was an active navy medical doctor on a mission. He had the presence of a true army general, through and through, but he had made her nervous; yet she knew so many respected him. “Never thought you would be on active duty again.”
She shrugged her bare shoulders. He wasn’t wrong, this change of heart is even concerning to herself but how can she deny being out in the field, saving soldiers again? “I suppose they appealed to my sense of wanting to help those in need,” she paused looking at the group, eyeing them up and down. They were a strange lot, that’s for certain. “And they need it after looking at their makeshift first aid kits.”
“Regardless, it’s good to know you are back in the field.” Shepard said. “Price, I’ll update you for the location of the next mission for now. Get some rest till you hear from me.”
“Yes sir,” Price said, reaching for the phone ending the call. He put the phone into a pocket on his tactical vest. “Now, Dr. Taylor, how are you settling in?”
“It is….an adjustment. I will obviously survive. I do want to fix yall’s first aid kits before the end of the day just in case yall have to do something tomorrow.” She said, keeping her gaze on the older man. Price nodded at her.
“What was wrong with our kits?” Gaz asked, his leg had stopped bouncing.
She rolled her green eyes, “band aids aren’t gonna do much if you get stabbed multiple times.”
No one could argue with that logic.
“I guess this meeting is o-” Price began to speak but Laura cleared her throat.
“Well actually,” she paused and looked at each of them. “All of y’all need an updated physical from what I saw on your records.”
All the men looked over in her direction, even the lone Ghost in the corner. Why were men always so worried about something so simple as a physical? No matter where she goes in the world, that is always the same expression. And its usually men who are the most scared of shots as well.
“And before you argue with me, yall know you technically can't be out in the field without a doctor signing off on you,” she said, and turned her back to them. “Just stop by whenever and get it out the way, right?”
She walked out of the room back to her medical office, maybe she can find some instant coffee in her duffle bag.