Liability [Simon Ghost Riley]

my sisters keeper

Phoebe had been at the base for nearly a month. She felt as though things were finally settled after the horrible first week she had. She was able to keep very busy, there were always soldiers needing some sort of treatment. If she wasn't with patients then she spent most of her free team with Johnny and Kyle. They'd truly accepted her and invited her to join their little group. Besides the two sergeants, John Price had been incredibly kind to her. Constantly checking in and ensuring that she was doing well. They'd had a long talk recently about how hard it was to adjust to a place like this without having any military past. He understood her perfectly. He'd become a confidant, someone she trusted.

The one thing that had been quite rough was Emma. The pair had been fighting nonstop since she arrived. Emma was a caretaker, being four years older than Phoebe she was always in charge. When they were younger their parents traveled constantly for their business. Leaving Emma to care for Phoebe. Now that they were together once more, Emma had picked up the same behavior. Bossing her sister around and treating her like a child. Phoebe fucking hated it. She wondered why she was even there if this was the way her sister would behave like she was a nuisance. She'd begun to pull away from her sister in the past weeks, spent time with the boys, and continued avoiding Ghost.

It was nearly 9 pm by the time Phoebe had gotten back to her room and showered, it was a 13-hour day as there had been a heli accident, resulting in tons of critical injuries. She'd been on her feet all day and she was exhausted. It was the first major emergency all-hands-on-deck situation she'd dealt with while at the base. It was quite eye-opening, having never been in that position before she'd worried how she would react when the time came. But she held herself together and they didn't end up losing a single soldier. One of her patients was Emma, who'd been injured in the crash, her arm suffered 2nd degree burns and she had a broken hand. Though she wasn't able to work on her sister, she snuck in a few times to check on her. The tension between them still lingers.

As much as her body craved sleep, she felt guilty that her sister was alone in a room while she slept peacefully in their shared room. She puts on a pair of grey sweatpants and a hoodie, she puts on her fuzzy socks and slips her berks over them, not caring how ridiculous she looked. Her long hair was still wet, and she was sure she'd never looked worse as she shuffled out of the warmth of the room. She sneaks through the common area, keeping a lookout for the skull-masked asshole. As she enters the med bay she hurries over to her sisters bed, she pulls back the curtain and notices Emma's wide eyes.

"What are you doing?" she demands

"Came to see you"

"I can see that, but you shouldn't be here after lights out"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay, you scared me today Em" Phoebe says softly, trying to take her hand. Emma rips is away and glares at her.

"You can't just keep breaking the rules like this! Do you have any idea how much trouble the both of us would be in?"

"From who Ghost? I think I can handle it"

"You handled things once already and now I'm on his shitlist!" Emma whisper yells

"What?" she asks angrily

"If you hadn't of made him look bad then I wouldn't be on the backup team, I wouldn't have been on the fucking helicopter"

"No, Ghost isn't like that. He wouldn't punish you because of me" she refuses

"And how do you know that?"

"Johnny and -"

"Right Soap and Gaz told you, my fucking teammates are telling you stuff about the Lieutenant"

"Is that a problem? Do you not trust their word?" she asks

"The problem is that you came here and make a fucking fool out of me, and then you steal my friends! Do you realize that you wouldn't even be here with this fucking job if it wasn't for me?"

"You refuse to let me forget" Phoebe snaps "I'm not stealing your friends, Kyle and Johnny have been the only people who will talk to me! The only time you talk to me is when we're fighting! Do you have any idea how alone I've felt since I got here?"

"That's because everyone thinks your fucking Ghost" Emma snaps.

Phoebe's eyes widen and she stares at her sister in shock. "Is that true?"

"Yes" Emma responds

"You never change do you? I mean Jesus you are the one who begged me to come with you! I left my friends and my job to be here because you didn't wanna go alone! I never wanted to work on a fucking military base with men who treat me like shit all day because I'm just the medic, nobody important! What do I matter here, I'm replaceable! I'm expendable! You and everyone else have made that very clear. The only people that have my back are Price, Johnny, and Kyle. You've always felt entitled to controlling my life, ever since we were little! Emma, I am so fucking sorry for making you look bad, I never meant to. But I am not the reason you were on that helicopter and I'm not the reason you're alone!" she says before standing up and leaving the med bay.

She was unable to stop the tears from dripping down her cheeks as she hurriedly walked back to her room. She raises her hands to wipe her face, not paying attention to where she was going when she runs into the wall. She yelps in surprise and looks up to see the one and only Ghost staring down at her angrily.

"I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention" she says

"What are you doing coming from the med bay after lights out?"

"Forgot my glasses" she lies

Ghost notices her glossy eyes and tear stains on her hoodie. He sighs and moves out of her way. Some part of him was unsettled, seeing her clearly upset. He knew she was lying, she had certainly gone to speak to her sister. Whatever had happened between them left the girl in tears.

"Consider it forgotten, just this time"

"Good night Lieutenant" she murmurs before hurrying past him.