For the next year I was stationed on the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The year was gruelling. I got myself a reputation pretty quickly for being cold, distant and after a particularly powerful nightmare - troubled.
While I made many acquaintances with other crew members, I made a point of not allowing myself to get close enough to call anyone, friend. That of course, was until Timothy rolled in.
☞ ☞ ☞
The tip of my fork had just made contact with the ladle sized clump of mashed potato on my dinner tray when another body dropped down directly opposite me, at my table.
He was a fairly tall man with short brown hair and piercing blue eyes. Judging by his build he worked out regularly and took pride in his appearance. As he smiled a slight gap could be seen between his front teeth. Physically, he was a very beautiful looking guy.
"Hey loser, thought you could use a friend!" It was clear he wasn't using the term in a bullying way as when I looked up at him, he gave me a stupidly big, cheesy grin while shuffling in his seat excitedly.
"I sit alone...what do you want?" I questioned. While completely wary of his behaviour, the shit eating grin he had, got to me, and I couldn't help but smirk slightly.
"Well...let's sit alone together then huh? We're going to be best pals, just you wait and see." He wiggled his eyebrows as he spoke.
Putting down my fork I crossed my arms continuing to smirk at him. "We can't 'be alone together' because then we'd no longer be alone dumbass. Huh, really? Do I get to know my best friend's name?"
"Oh but of course my lady! Tim Robbins, pleasure to meet your acquaintance." He pretended to bow over his food.
Shaking my head, I let out a small laugh before picking up my fork as we both began to eat.
☞ ☞ ☞
Timothy's attitude and persistent attempts to become my 'best pal' meant that life on the ocean did actually improve greatly for me. It turns out Timothy was a NAVY Seal on a short assignment aboard the ship. He was very open and didn't hold back when talking to me, something I greatly appreciated.
Despite my newfound friendship I allowed myself very little downtime. If I wasn't carrying out my basic duties, medical duties or physically training I was studying for my PHD's. Being branded a 'genius with a photographic memory' was very beneficial to speeding up my education. Having such a wide variety of skills also meant that I was usually in demand. I made the most of this and learnt from as many branches on board as I could, including the basics of flight training.
I'd look into getting my pilots license on leave - I also needed to sort my physical drivers and motorbike licence having passed the test when I was at S.H.I.E.L.D.
☞ ☞ ☞
As Timothy's assignment drew to a close he pulled me aside for a serious chat. Apparently word was being spread about myself and my current commanding officer had spoken to a buddy of his who happened to be on Timothy's team - they wanted to meet me.
After multiple chats, it seemed like a good fit so I agreed to sign up to take the tests and see if I had what it took.
Much to my surprise, the sucker was right - he did manage to worm his way into being my friend and I was sad to say goodbye to him.
☞ ☞ ☞
I was pulled off all duties one month before deployment. This was due to being flown stateside to complete a series of rigorous human conditioning tests before being grated one week of 'down time' before my final test - hell week.
