Undeniable || Simon "Ghost" Riley ||

Chapter 2

Aim and Persevere

Hattie was back at base, sitting in bed with her tools all around her, practicing her suturing skills on silicon skin. She was skilled with these techniques, but she needed to divert her thoughts from her mothers death.

Hattie Sloan, I came here for you. I'm asking you to be a part of task force 141.

Was she even ready for this? She was aware of them, but never considered their actions or the captain's request for her to be on their team.

What implications does this hold for her? Will she be their dedicated medic, or will she have more responsibilities? Her mind was racing with all of the possibilities but remained focused on her work.

She sighed as she finished her purse string suture technique, finding a way to close up the star shaped laceration on the silicone skin. She picked up another one of her instruments to do basic stitches on before someone knocked on her door.

"Come in!" She uttered as she began to administer her stitches. A man walked in looking to be around late twenties early thirties with a mohawk and bright blue eyes.

"Sorry to disturb ya lassie, but Cap'n Price wants to see the team, that includes you now." He said. "Name's soap." He expressed, extending out an arm for Hattie to take. "Hattie. Hattie Sloan." She said with a smile. "It's nice to meet you."

She followed behind the team member, absorbing the reality of the situation. He opened up the door for her with the members of 141 already sat down with Captain Price at the head of the table

"Welcome Sloan, please, sit down." He motioned for her to take a seat next to Soap who pulled out a chair for her, and next to a darker complexioned man. "Name's Gaz." He said as he reached out a hand for her to shake. "Hattie. Nice to meet you." She said with a smile.

Price explained the mission that was brought about. "Ghorbrani will be in Al Mazrah. We suspect he will have Russian armed personnel and weapons. We need a positive I.D. on him. Ghost will be our eyes for this mission. It's meant to be swift, in and out. " Price remarked, intertwining his fingers.

Hattie looked over to find the "ghost" Price was talking about. He wasn't sitting down, but her eyes wandered to the tall being standing in the corner with his arms crossed over his chest with an intimidating ghost mask covering his face. It looked like he was staring her down, but she couldn't tell. She quickly looked away and back at Price as he explained once more that the Shadow Co. would accompany ghost overhead launching the missile when he successfully marked the target.

When the meeting was over, everybody walked out of the room except Price and ghost. "Sloan, could you hang back for a moment? I'd like to talk to you." He said as he discreetly eyed the tall man in the corner who appeared unmoved since the meeting, finally stirred. I wonder why he's still here.

Both of them now had eyes on her. Okay, this seems serious, but now it's getting awkward. Stop staring and say something. Price walked up to Hattie, placing a hand on the top her back as he led her out of the conference room, Ghost following behind.

"I'd like to see your skills, Sloan. I know you're capable, but I need to see how you handle yourself with my men. This is different from what you're used to. It's just us five now, I need you to be the best."

"Always sir." She said confidently. "What would you like me to do?"

He smiled and leaned in next to her. "I need you to outshoot Ghost." He whispered as he stepped back, nodding at Ghost, indicating for him to come beside her and lead her to the shooting range.

They made their way to the range, Ghost towering over Hattie as he walked behind her, the silence and his presence weighing heavily on her. She listened to every step he took echoing off the walls.

Breaking the awkward silence, Hattie spoke. "Not much of a talker are you?" She said as they had arrived at the area, grabbing the guns he wanted her to shoot with.

"No." He said very bluntly as he messed with the guns, checking them for ammo and putting them in the holster of his pants. She couldn't help but watch as he made it look so effortless, as he had done this a thousand times, maybe even more.

He looked down to her signaling that he was ready whenever she was. They both retrieved their guns, he glanced at her, nodding, before they proceeded.

As each target would pop up, ghost would always beat her to it, either hitting the target straight in the head, or right in the heart. There wasn't ever a time where he missed. Hattie was slower to it, but she hit the target almost perfectly every time too. The only reason she took her time was to show Captain Price he made the right choice. She couldn't have any screw ups, because she knew that would reflect on her badly.

"Anyone can hit that target. That was just a warmup." He said without emotion. "Pick up the MCPR-300. We're going outside." His gruff British voice told Hattie. She did as he told, not wanting to get on his bad side and quickly followed behind him leading to the field where they practiced with snipers. This should be easy.

It wasn't. She should've known better. Her long blonde hair flew in the wind as she looked through the scope of her gun, ghost quickly telling her the target she had to hit before finding it, and taking a shot. She got most of them, but something about him lying right next to her, made her feel nervous, anxious almost. She knew she had to have a perfect shot, but when he would call out a target, she could feel his dark, cold eyes on her. She didn't know if that was his tactic to throw people off or not, but it was definitely working on her and she hated it.

"There, does that meet your standards?" She said as she picked up her gun and put it on safety, standing up face to face ghost just mere inches from her staring down at her hazel eyes. The top of her head barely lined up with his shoulders. Good god he's tall.

"It'll do." He huffed as he took one more glance sliding the strap of his sniper around his shoulder and turning around heading back to the base.

She rolled her eyes as she was following behind him not understanding why he was such a hard-ass. Maybe that's just the way he is, or maybe he didn't want to admit I was a good shot. Yeah, I'll think that.

Both of them got back to base, not engaging in conversation, nothing was going to get through to the guy, so why should she try? It was probably for the best. She didn't want to get into it with him, he would probably ruin her.

After putting all of her gear away, she went back to her room for the night. She showered, and changed into camo sweatpants, and a black shirt and let down her wet blonde hair, brushing out the knots and leaving it to air dry. She hopped on her bed, crossing her legs as she took out the supplies and books to study more medicine for the field.

It never hurt to study the things she already knew, because she loved to do it and loved her job. It was her favorite thing in the world being able to help others and knowing she saved their lives, or even helping out with something as little as a cut. She didn't care, anything could be thrown her way and she would find a way to solve it.

After hours of flipping through pages and studying the materials, she finally decided to go to bed. She was a total night owl, but she couldn't help it. That's just how she was ever since she could remember. It didn't help either that she hated waking up early in the morning.