Chapter Text
“Task Force 141 is the best of the best of SPECGRU and we’ve offered them our best to support them, which is you, Lieutenant.”
“We don’t work with them, sir,” I argue in defiance.
“We have a common goal at the moment, so as of right now Kortac’s mission is aligned with theirs, no more discussion on this matter.”
“Yes sir,” I state with a quick salute.
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“This is the new Lieutenant that Kortac has sent over,” the gruff accent jars me back to the present as I look over to my left to Captain Price, my temporary command.
“Thank you for the introduction, Captain,” I begin after clearing my throat, “ I’m sure you have all already read some version of a file on me so I will skip the details and just say that I look forward to this joint operation and the quicker we adjust to one another and get this dealt with, the faster we can all get back to our lives. Other than that I think the only thing to add is that most people back home call me Boom, so if you’d prefer you can call me that over any formal title,” I finish with a forced smile.
“Okay then,” Captain Price steps forward once again, “I suppose that is a good place to break off, Soap, you can give her a tour and show her to her room,” he finishes with a curt nod as he begins walking towards the door as the rest of the task force stand to follow.
I begin scanning the room, quickly realizing I wasn’t listening when the Captain was introducing all of them. My eyes finally land on a short mohawk that adorned a rather handsome face trotting up to me. For someone who looks like he practically seeps masculinity, his crooked smile tells a different story.
“Ay there lass,” the Scottish accent chimes in, “don’t mind the lack of pleasantries, we’re not huge Kortac fans ‘round here,” he finishes with a wink while widening his grin.
“Well, Specgru isn’t exactly on the holiday card list for us either,” I retort back with a grin of my own, relaxing some in his presence.
Soap pauses for a second before bursting out laughing, finding the joke much funnier than it was,
“Ay, that’s true, that’s true” he says after gaining some composure, “well, we might be professional competitors but I won’t let Kortac’s reputation speak for each individual.”
I grimace internally at his statement knowing exactly what reputation he speaks of, that Kortac has no scruples of who they accept pay from as a private military contractor, unlike Specgru whose reputation as being so morally pure they might as well sprout angel wings and only in it “for the people.”
“Well, I suppose it’s time for the grand tour,” Soap beams with a hard slap on the back, practically toppling my short frame over.
Not realizing what he did, Soap was already walking ahead without looking over his shoulder, assuming I was following which I took the hint and hurriedly followed.
The base was somewhat large but mostly storage and training areas so the tour was rather short as he walked me through the common areas and then down a hallway, Soap chimes in again when we reach about the middle of the hallway,
“And here’s the showers, it’s unisex but each stall has its own ceiling to floor curtain and you can trust the team,” he says earnestly as he makes eye contact with me.
“Don’t worry, ours are unisex too and I can take care of myself irregardless” I respond with a smirk.
“Ay, that I don’t doubt lass,” he says with a chuckle.
We stand in silence for a brief moment before Soap clears his throat, “Well, that about finishes the tour, your door is the last one, the one right before yours is our L.T., Ghost, he’s quiet but a good guy,” he finishes with a grin as he practically skips back to his own room.
I watch Soap as he enters his room wondering how on Earth he was so damn chipper and if he’s always like this when I hear a door open behind me, I turn to see a tall man with a skull mask on walking towards me, I don’t tremble at the sight of any man but even I have to admit the white skull glinting out in the dark hallway was like a phantom coming towards me and it made me hesitate but for a second.
“Hi, I didn’t get the chance to introduce myself earlier,” I start when he reaches me and stares down at me over the rim of the eye holes in his mask, “you can just call me Boom, although I think I said that earlier, it’s nice to meet the other L.T. here” I finish while holding out my hand.
Ghost glances down at my hand and quickly looks back up,
“You are on loan from Kortac but that doesn’t mean we like you, and when you’re here your rank is meaningless, I’m the only L.T.” he finishes with a quick turn into the showers.
I stand there for a moment, completely dumbfounded. A good guy? Is Soap the unit’s local idiot? The guy is nothing but a giant with a chip on his shoulder and an ego the size of his chest.
I quickly regain my composure and go to my room, I shut the door with a quiet click and lean against it before letting out a long sigh, this is going to be the longest mission ever.
I skim my eyes over my room, there’s a small desk in the corner next to an even smaller closet and a twin sized bed along the far wall under a window. The moonlight peeks in through the curtains and I immediately realize how late it is and the exhaustion of my flight and the day takes its hold on my muscles and bones. I rifle through my bags that had been brought to my room and quickly grab some gray sweatpants and a white tank top before I return to my door and push my ear against it. Only Ghost’s room separates mine from the showers and I don’t hear any water running.
Confident Ghost has finished and returned to his room I slip out of my own, barefoot, my feet padding across the cold tile on the floor. I make my way to the showers in just a few quick steps and dart inside where I run smack into a wall of naked flesh.
Startled, I look up to see a bare chest with nothing but black sweatpants on and… a black balaclava?
“Do you even shower in that thing?” I say without thinking as I reach up to pick at the edge.
A large hand darts out and grabs my wrist,
“I assumed I already made myself clear,” the gruff British accent practically growls at me from his chest, “we are not teammates and do not, ever, touch the mask,” he finishes as I jerk my wrist free.
“We have to work together no matter how much we both hate it,” I say as I sidestep around him, him not taking his eyes off me as if he’s waiting for me to attack him from behind, “so you might as well get used to me,” I finish as I step into a shower and yank the curtain closed.
I sat there for a few moments in the small area of the stall that has a hook and a small bench to set my things, waiting to hear footsteps leaving. I hear nothing and I realize I probably wouldn’t, Ghost’s reputation for stealth is known to all of us at Kortac as we’ve tried poaching him more than once for our company, so I set my things down and quickly undress and make the few steps forward around the half wall into the shower and turn it on.
I quickly wash and get out, getting dressed and now regretting not wearing shoes as the tile was a cold shock to my otherwise warm feet. I pull my wet hair up into a silk hair scrunchy and step from the shower when I realize Ghost had never left the showers and was leaning against the far wall.
I see his eyes glance down and I am suddenly aware that the thin white tank top with no bra combo was a bad one as my nipples react to the cold air, I quickly pull my dirty clothes against my chest.
“Soap told me you were a good guy, guess he was wrong, pervert,” I snap out with a sneer as I quickly begin walking towards the door.
Ghost quickly steps in front of me blocking my path,
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he begins, the disdain in his voice is more than obvious, “I simply wanted to gauge your situational awareness, judging by the knife hidden in your hand, I’d say well enough,” he finishes as he narrows his eyes slightly.
I grip my knife harder in between the dirty clothes, slightly thrown off by his ability to sense it,
“I don’t let my guard down, only happened once and I learned my lesson quickly,” I say cryptically before I try to step around him again.
“You’re right,” he says, pulling my attention back to his face, surprised, “We don’t like each other but we will have to work together. Although I will never trust any of your motives, I’ve read enough of your file to know you’ve more than once risked your life for your team, so I hope you’ll give us that same loyalty even if it’s temporary.”
I stay silent for a moment, weighing his words. He was right, loyalty is the only thing we have when we’re out there, most of our missions are off the books and we both know that there is no backup when it comes to people like us.
“I don’t like most of my team in Kortac and I still have their backs no matter what, so you won’t have to worry about that,” I finally say.
Ghost eyes me in silence, probably trying to decide if he can believe me or not,
“Why don’t you like your team?” he asks pointedly.
“Oh well…” I begin, not actually expecting him to care enough to even bother himself with getting to know me at all, “we just don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, but it’s a job and I don’t have many options so…” I trail off with a shrug of the shoulders.
Ghost continues to assess me with his unnerving gaze. What is it with this guy? He really has a staring problem.
“Breakfast is at 0500, training starts at 0700,” he says simply before he turns and silently goes to his room, closing the door behind him with a sharp click.
I pad my way to my own room and close the door. I am too tired to even care how annoyed I am. Tossing my dirty clothes into the corner and sliding my knife under my pillow, I lay down on my stomach and quickly let the exhaustion of the day take over my body as I drift off to sleep with my hand under the pillow still gripping my knife.