Simon 'Ghost' Riley - The Spiders Web

17

The tension between Ghost and Spider after that mission had been paramount to the group; Soap and Gaz did their best to ignore it, keeping up normal banter and chatter when off the field, but Ghost was quieter than usual and Spider rarely even glanced his way anymore.

During lunch she was silent, picking at her food, and she did her best to not even look at the tall man. During missions, the only bit of conversation that flitted between the two was commands or necessary call outs over the comms.

Soap and Gaz had even began to bet on how long it would take for one of them to break and actually confront eachother.

Morally, they'd hoped it would be Ghost. As a last stretch, they supposed it would be Tina because she was the better person. But realistically they knew it would be neither of them because they were both too stubborn for their own good.

It got to the point where the two and even Price were trying to come up with ways to force it out of them; Tina was convinced Price kept pairing the two up on jobs on purpose but if she asked she knew he'd never admit it.

It didn't help, though, if anything it just drove that wedge even more between them. Tina didn't have the patience to deal with his bluntness and soon she knew she would just snap, and in the middle of a job it wouldn't exactly be ideal.

So while the others had a relaxed evening drinking and listening to music from two large speakers that had been pushed into the hangar, Tina had finally had enough of Ghost avoiding her.

She was going to get her apology, or she was going to watch him get shot during a mission and claim his death was an accident. She didn't have the patience for waiting anymore.

Soap and Gaz were throwing darts at a chalk drawn on dart board on the wall while Tina sat back and watched, tapping her foot along to the heavy rock music playing through the speakers.

A couple weeks ago Tina had noticed a bottle of scotch had appeared in one of the cupboards and hadn't questioned how or why - she knew Soap enjoyed the drink too, so when he had offered her a glass she had readily accepted. She'd take anything over the god awful beer Gaz was drinking.

A couple other guys had come out to play some card games and watch the darts, sitting around just listening to the music and chatting, clinking beer bottles as the hours passed and the sky grew dark. There was a slight buzz in the place as they'd finally had some time to sit back and relax.

Tina seemed to be the only one not interested in any of the activities even though the boys had tried getting her involved many times.

Apparently, though, she wasn't the only one.

Without really meaning to, Tina ended up scouring the hangar in search of that familiar skull mask. Maybe it was because it had been over a week without so much as a word or a glance and it was annoying her. Maybe it was because she was curious where he spent all his time when everyone got together.

She wasn't exactly the best when it came to gatherings, least of all interested, but she always showed up for the sake of people watching and observing. Not to mention Soap had offered her a glass of Scotch to stay for an extra hour after she'd complained she was tired - which nowadays she rarely wasn't - and so she was stuck tapping her foot to music she didn't really like, watching games she didn't really like, the only upside being she was sipping a drink she actually did like.

With Gaz arguing with another bloke about whether the dart had crossed the poorly drawn line between a 20 and a 1, Tina spotted a tall, burly figure passing by the outskirts of the room with hands in his pockets.

Angling her head back in her seat to get a better view, she watched the man in the familiar skull mask glance around briefly at the liveliness of the rest of the place and made a turn towards the outside instead.