A Ghost Encounter: My Time with Simon "Ghost" Riley

Part Eighty-Eight: One Month, Two Months, Three Months

— Month One —

One month has passed since Ghost and Laswell left for their "covert" mission.

Me being me, I've tried convincing Captain Price to give me any bit of information regarding their mission, but to no avail.

A couple of updates: König, sadly, went back to his base two weeks ago and I've missed him ever since.

Since Soap passed, I've been spending a lot of my time talking with sweet, König. It was incredibly difficult to say goodbye. Maybe one day in the future we'll work together again. Hopefully.

Gaz has been training with Price and me from time to time, but he's been training new recruits recently. These recruits won't be joining the Task Force, just new army recruits, but having the honor of being trained by a member of 141 is rare.

Laswell thought it was a good leadership opportunity for Gaz, and a means to test him. Maybe a promotion is coming his way depending on how the training of the recruits fares.

It's been a difficult month: an unruly amount of training, volunteer work within the base, and continuous weekly check-ins with Price which usually end in the both of us having headaches.

The hardest part has been missing Simon. It's been eight months since Price requested my presence—since I joined Task Force 141–on the mission to execute Hassan.

I've been by Simon's side, most of the time, since then. Not more than a few days or a week has gone by where we haven't seen each other, so imagine how a month feels.

I can't imagine what the next month will feel like, or the one after that, or the one after that.

To break myself out of my spiral, I walk over to my bathroom sink, cup cold water in my hands, and splash my face.

I'm meeting with Captain Price in ten minutes to talk about "the status" of my probation period. Who knows what he'll say?

I've been on the top of my game, though. I've made every one of Price's frivolous meetings, attended and tried my all at every training, and kept my charming attitude to a minimum—at least I've tried to.

I finish fan-drying my wet face and make my stalk towards Price's office.

"Sergeant Roberts, good morning." He grins but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

"Good morning, Captain," I respond. "Is something the matter?"

Let's see how much information I can get out of the revered John Price today.

He smirks wickedly, "You don't miss a thing, do you?"

"Never." I shake my head playfully.

We stare at each other for a few moments, both of us waiting for each other to speak. Except I'm waiting for him to tell me more.

Letting out a deep sigh, like he's known my intentions all along, he says, "I've received word from Laswell."

"And?" I ask with anticipation, my eyebrows raised.

"Things are moving slower than expected," he huffs, his body tense.

Slower than expected means the longer they'll be gone. The longer he will be gone.

"But they're doing well?"

Price looks at me first with a bit of surprise, which is shortly replaced by fondness. "They're doing well." He smiles warmly.

Relief washes over me.

I nod my head. "You wanted to talk about the status of my probation." A save from the heaviness of our emotions.