Home - COD Simon Ghost Riley X Female OC

Chapter 27

"Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition."
― James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room

"You're crazy." Simon huffed a laugh.

"I'm crazy?" MJ placed a hand on her chest. Her adrenaline was extremely high, she could feel her heart racing so she pushed, trying to slow it down.

"They're crazy." He said, quieter, as if to himself.

"I know, but that's why it's scary. They're crazy enough to think this will work."

"They don't care if it works, they just want to shed blood and take eyes off of their operation."

"I knew," she stood and paced, dragging her chain along the ground, "I knew I wasn't going to get away from you fast enough. I knew I was going to get more people hurt."

"Don't talk like that. This isn't your fault." He said with a conviction that made her even more angry.

She stopped and stared in the direction of where she knew he sat. "Now you sound crazy. Of course this is my fault. I was the one breathing down their neck in New York."

He watched her. He didn't need to argue with her, she knew how she sounded.

"It's going to be okay, MJ. If they had the capability to take out the entire 141, they would have done it a long time ago."

"They have the capability to take out you, though."

She thought she might panic. She hadn't had a panic attack since just after her parents died and it was one of only a few she had ever experienced. But she remembered how loud her ears rang, just before, and how her hands went numb. She clenched hers into fists, she put one against her mouth and bit her knuckles, willing them to regain feeling.

"Sit down." Simon said from his corner. He moved, pulling himself away from the wall and leaning toward her. "Put your head down."

She obeyed him.

"They could never make me hurt you, MJ. Of all the promises I've broken, I'd die to keep that one." His voice had that same finality in it from the night before. It felt like a knife in her chest. It grounded her.

Maybe he was wrong. Maybe this was a way out for both of them. "Maybe you should rethink that."

"What do you mean?" He refused to humor her.

"Do what they say."

He laughed again, it was ice cold. It scared her. "No."

Clarity washed over her, bright and harsh. "I don't have a life outside of this anymore. You do. The members of the 141 have families and homes to return to."

"Stop."

"Do what they say, forget about me, go back to what you were meant to do. You're supposed to be out saving lives, Simon, fighting the bad guys. And look at you. You're trapped in here, trying to find a way out of a situation that I got you into. And the path seems clear."

"Mariana—"

"I don't want you to die for me, Simon. I never asked for that. I would never be able to carry that weight, it would end both of us. No amount of time together is worth this martyrdom."

He pretended not to hear the last part. It had no legs to stand on. Only good men were considered martyrs.

"You've fought to survive all this time, and now you want to give up?" He raised his voice slightly, giving her the fight she wanted and ignoring his own.