Thunder | Simon "Ghost" Riley

003: sleep to dream

ღ
——————————————————————————
I spit the blood out of my mouth, watching the water make it drip down to my feet, "fucking asshole" I mutter under my breathe. I briefly tap my nose and wince at the pain hitting me in an instant.

"Knock knock." I hear aster knock on the wall. "You okay?" She asks. "Not in the slightest" I admit. "I brought you a change of clothes since the last were well a bit bloody." She says from outside the curtain.

"Did you see the way he looked at me?" I asked her still running the water through my body, I slightly shiver realizing the warm water is running out.

"Who?"

"Ghost or whatever his name is." I respond.

"How do you mean?" She asks.

I step out, she hands me a towel and I tie it around myself, "I don't know." I respond as we head from the back of the locker rooms to the front where all the mirrors and bathroom stalls are. "He looked at me in a way you know like he's never seen a women." I say staring at myself.

My nose seems fine the bleeding stopping and I already cracked it back in place so the damage was already gone but it still hurt like hell.

"Maybe as the Brit's say he fancies you." She chuckles. I cringe, "I don't see what my dad saw in him, he sacrificed his life... for his I just can't wrap around my head it." I stare at aster through the mirror. "I mean I would risk my life for yours wouldn't you do the same for me?" She stares back.

"Of course I would but I mean I wouldn't let you give up yours if you had kids and a husband." I argue. She nods in response, "He has seen women before though." She says in that tone that she always uses when she's gonna say something juicy.

"No aster I'm tired of your rumors." I take my clothes from her. "But i mean don't you want to know what you're going to get into before you leave?" She sings. "Okay what is it." I give in.

"I heard that they had a girl before in their team but she got kicked off for..." she looks away from me. "For what?" I ask. "She fucked the lieutenant." She trails off the last word.

I swiftly turn my body and face her, "Shouldn't he have gotten in trouble?" I question, "She confessed to coming onto him." She continues.

"You usually tell me everything like any piece of drama you tell me first why am I now just hearing about all of this?" I give her a look. "Don't give me that look because I did tell you dumb ass you just never connected the pieces and that isn't my fault." She rolls her eyes.

"So he's a slut?" I question her. "More like hes got bod and is a hottie and everyone wants him." She smiles. "Did you see all the girls gawking at him in the cafeteria." She continues.

I begin to put on my clothes, "I don't see it and again it's not like I'm going to sleep with some random stranger." I say adjusting my shirt. "He's your dad best friend." Aster adds on. "Was." I coldly state, "My dad died for him and I'm never going to forgot that my dad had my mom and me and instead pushing him away he just let him take the bullet." I rant.

Aster sighs, "your dad was a selfless person Dylan he gave up his life for someone else although we don't know why he must have had his reasons." She tries to reason.

I look at her and back to the mirror, "It must have been a good reason to leave me and mom alone." I exhale, finally finishing getting ready.

Aster ignores what I say and changes the subject of the conversation, "You're going to call me though right?" She says. "I'll try." I reply. We both walk out the door she continues to talk and I reply with one word or two.

I shiver slightly as we get closer to the commanders office. I felt like throwing up and shitting myself all at the same time, I never felt this time of anxiety before but it was all hitting me now.

It was my last day here, all those memories with aster, all those years, they're all gone it's not like they're leaving me but it's more like I'm leaving them.

"You okay?" Aster asks, I didn't realize I was just standing to the side of the door. "Um." I try to find the words, she inches her hand towards mine, I exhale feeling a bit of relief, "I don't think I can do this." I admit looking at her in the eyes. She tightens her grip on my hand, "Yes you can." Her voice cracks a bit, she looks at me like she was about to cry. "Aster." I whisper, she pulls me into a tight hug, "You're going to make me cry." I whisper into her ear as my head was placed onto her shoulder.

"You got this." She whimpers, she pulls herself off me, "Go." She points towards the door, I nod in response not saying anything because if I did my voice was crack ending up with me crying uncontrollably.

I knock and enter. I watch as both the commander and the Lieutenant eyes turned to me. I felt anxious as the man's eyes did what they have done earlier darting from one part of my body to the next. He is basically half of my height even though he was sitting down. His eyes could kill me looking so deeply into me, I gulp.

"Sir." I try to say but hear my voice crack. Even though I entered the office hundreds probably thousands of times it felt different today. "You alright?" The commander asks. "Fine, sorry sir" I clear my throat. "Good news Jason's alright how about you." He continues.

"Im fine I fixed my nose, just wished I could get a bit more hits in.. sir" I say. "Right." He says in a tone.

"Dylan you haven't officially met this is Simon your new lieutenant, he will be in charge of you from now on, from what Simon has informed me with, the team has had a female before."

I cringe at the word, they say the word female like it makes us so different from them.

"There's no way to ease into so I'm going to be direct." He clears his throat.

"She quit, she got captured and tortured for hours on end, she survived barely."He fixes his posture "Simon would you like to continue." He asks.

His eyes already on me he begins to speak, "She let it get the best of her and it affected her combat during missions."

I feel a shiver down my spine completely forgetting how deep his voice was, his British accent sort of softened the blow of his deep raspy harsh voice.

"She might have survived but she'll never be the same. You might think this won't happen to you because you're 'better' but trust me so was she." He harshly says.

I feel scared and could hear my heart beginning to race, "What are you trying to say sir." I ask the lieutenant. He places his palm on the arm rest of the chair and stands up. I look up at him as he basically towered over me, it seemed like he was gonna hit the roof.

"Can you handle this?" He states looking down at me. He made me feel weak and fragile, like all those years at work here meant nothing because he was better than me.

I look up at him trying to hold eye contact, "I can sir." I bluntly say. His eyes squint, I pull away the eye contact and look at his chest. He lets out a soft chuckle not like he was laughing because it was funny but more like he knew that I was wrong that I could do it.

——————————————————————————