Love & War

Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry, this chapter is kind of short. I decided to break up what I had written because it seemed a little long. Hope you guys are liking this. Please comment and let me know. :) Enjoy!

The loud thud and crash woke Anna from her dead sleep. Heart pounding, she grabs her pistol from the nightstand and rushes out of her bedroom. Thud, Thud. She makes her way to the guest bedroom and pushes the door open, gun first. Sitting on the floor with the covers hanging off the bed and a broken cup next to him is Tom. He’s leaning against the bed with his head laid back on top of it and his long legs stretched out in front of him.

“You scared the crap out of me,” she tells him as she lowers the gun. She realized he was only in his boxers and blushes, what did he do strip in his sleep? “What happened? Did you fall out of the bed?”

“I think I did. Where am I?” he asks while looking around the room. She tells him that he passed out in front of the club so with the help of Alex they brought him back here to sleep it off. “Well, thanks. I don’t like the gun in my face this early in the morning. But I don’t mind the view behind it.” He chuckles lightly as Anna looks down at herself. Holy Crap, she forgot he was here, so when she ran to the room she was only in her tank top and boy shorts.

“Oh my god, I’m gonna go get dressed. If you want to shower, go ahead, towels and everything are in the closet. Ok, see you downstairs whenever,” she rushes out the door.

Anna went back to her room and as she was searching her closet, she called the base and got booked on a flight the next morning at 3 am. After Anna changed into a pair of sweats and a hoodie, she went down to her desktop computer to Skype with her team over in Iraq. As a familiar face fills the screen, she can’t help but smile. “What’s up, Max? Did I interupt anything important?”

“Hey, L.T. I thought you were supposed to be on a plane right now.”

“I will be I had to find a new ride, mine got cancelled. So I figured I would call and check up on you asshats.” At that Max’s laugh comes through the computer.

“Hey, did the Commander tell you he’s sending Charlie, the new kid and I out in the field? Something to do with the rescue of a journalist, you’ll have to get with Charlie on it though. You know me I just follow the commands of my leader,” he jokes with her.

“Well, if I need to talk to Charlie, go grab him for me. I want to make sure you’ve got a solid plan. Gotta make sure the kids are safe.” Max is off the screen, but she can hear his laugh through the speaker. While she was waiting for Charlie, she pulled her work laptop onto her desk to go over the files she knew he would send her. After waiting a few minutes another familiar face fills the screen. “Don’t you know how to shave Charlie?” she jokes with him.

“Not all of us can wake up looking perfect, L.T.” he jokes back. They spent the next 20 minutes going over the mission the guys were being sent on in her absence. Charlie had a solid plan, she was pretty proud of how far he had come since joining the team. In fact, she was going to recommend him to their Commander to take over as Lieutenant Commander, when her final tour was over.

As she was examining a map on her laptop, she didn’t see Charlie lean towards his screen and squint, trying to see something behind her.

“Holy shit is that a shirtless Tom Hiddleston behind you,” he yells through the computer, startling her out of her thoughts. “Max, get your ass in here, you gotta see this shit.”

Anna looks behind her to see Tom walking towards her with his shirt in his hand, looking at her computer at Charlie and Max, giving them a smile. She got caught up staring at his abs, when she heard the guys singing through the computer. “Anna and Tom, sitting in a tree,  k.i.s.s.i-“ “nope, Max its f.u.c.k.i.n.g.” he finishes by breaking into AC/DC’s Shook Me All Night Long.

Anna swings her gaze back to her computer with a sharp “Charles McDowell! Enough!” He stops immediately when he sees her face. She can hear Tom laughing behind her. “Tom, these two fools are Charlie and Max,” she points to the screen. “Fools, this is Tom,” she points towards him. “Back to business please. Charlie, present the changes we discussed with the Commander, but overall great job. Like I’ve told you previously, you’re gonna make a great leader, sooner hopefully than later.” He thanks her as she continues. “Keep an eye on the new kid please and let me know your thoughts.”

“Yes, ma’am, we have briefing in,” he checks his watch, “48 minutes, so I’ll give him those ideas. And don’t worry L.T. we won’t kill the new guy just yet.” He jokes with her.

 “I'll text you my flight info,  that way if Commander Elliot asks, you can tell him when to expect me back. Be safe, be vigilant, be prepared and expect the unexpected.”

They shake their heads with a smile on their faces, “Yes, ma’am.”

She says her goodbyes and as she’s getting ready to click the disconnect, both Charlie and Max yell “great job L.T.” and they pick up singing the AC/DC song. In an instant her screen is blank and the room is filled with an awkward silence. “Sorry about that,” she tells Tom as she gets out of her chair to grab her laptop bag.