Dogs of War

Chapter 15

"Wolf!" The little girls scream reaches my ears down the hall before I can even see her. I know Gaz or Soap must have their hands full with the Lilly trying to get her through the base discreetly.

"Lilly, hush. This is a hospital, not a playground." Gaz. I smile at the exasperated tone knowing he must have repeated that dozens of times in the last seven months. 

"But she's awake!" I can hear the pitter patter of her feet as she runs down the hall and I hear Gaz quickening his pace to keep up with her.

"She's not going to fall unconscious again any time soon, Flower. You have time to see her."

The door to our room flies open hitting the wall, and the little bundle of fur and excitement comes barrelling up over the end of my bed and crawls up my lap to fling her arms around my shoulders.

"Lilly," I smile widely. "Are you behaving for Gaz?"

"Yes," she exclaims bouncing up and down in my arms.

"No," Gaz replies at the same time, crossing his arms across his chest and leaning against the door frame. Lilly shoots him a filthy look before pouting at me. 

"I'm being good, I promise." Her retractable claws needing into my back as if to reinforce she really has been well behaved

The soft chuckle that escapes my throat sends her lower lip trembling. "I highly doubt that little cat." I ruffle her hair between her ears, finding her pouting endearing. 

"She has been causing chaos wherever she goes," Ghost shakes his head from the other bed. 

"No I haven't," comes the quick remark of a little girl who thinks she can do no wrong.

"She has been working with Shane, Ben and Dr. Cooper on her hybrid abilities." Ghost stares at Lilly, and I'm impressed that Lilly stares him down without flinching. "Do you want to tell Wolf, or do you want me to tell Wolf what you've been doing?"

"I did nothing." She looks up at me with the saddest puppy dog eyes a twelve year old can muster, lower trembling lip and eyes glistening with fake tears.

"Crocodile tears won't get you out of trouble, Tiger Lily."

"Tiger Lily?" She frowns at me confused. "It's a type of Lily. I thought it appropriate that you are a tiger hybrid, and your name is Lilly." I pull out my phone and show her a picture of what Tiger lilies look like.

"Those are so pretty." She looks up at me with a mix of pride and curiosity. "Is that my call sign?"

My eyebrows raise in surprise. "You still want a call sign? You know for civilians, that's just a nickname, right?"

"I want a call sign!" She crosses her arms as she glares at me, brows lowered as if ready to fight me.

"Ok, Tiger Lily, you can have a call sign." The amusement lining my voice darkens her expression.

"Why are you laughing at me?" Oops, I'd triggered some twelve year old self-esteem trigger.

"I'm not laughing at you, little Tiger Lily. I think you're adorable, and that comes across as amusement."

"Hmph," her shoulders slump. "You don't smell like you're lying."

"Ah, you've been developing your sense of smell?"

"Tell her what else you've been developing, kitten?" Ghost is still staring at her and I know he is more amused than annoyed at whatever she's been doing.

"My night vision..." She mumbles without looking at me.

"Ok, and what have you been doing with your night vision?" Ghost pushes her.

"Hunting," her voice growing smaller and more sullen as Ghost continues pushing her to spill the information she clearly doesn't want to tell me about. I smother a smile as I figure out what exactly she's been hunting.

"Tell Wolf what you've been hunting."

I can see Gaz by the door standing smugly, a smirk crossing his lips as he watches the twelve year old get interrogated by Ghost.

"People." Her voice is so resigned I'd have expected the tone from a thirty year old office worker told to work late, yet again. 

"Which people, little flower?" Gaz encourages her to continue speaking.

"The humans in the house." Her shoulders slump as she refuses to look at me which I'm grateful for as I try and struggle to hide a growing desire to laugh. 

"Has it been good hunting?" I ask mischievously. Her head shoots up to look at me finally, her mouth hanging open and eyes wide. 

"Wolf!" Gaz chastises. "You're not meant to be encouraging her! She's a worse menace than you. I have claw marks down my thigh."

I see the look of regret cross through her eyes and I wonder what happened. "I'm sorry Gaz, I didn't mean to claw you." 

Gaz brings a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, thumb and forefingers spreading out to rub his eyes as he takes a moment to collect himself.

"She has apologised several times, Gaz. We have since had several talks with her about controlling her claws if she is practicing on us." Ghosts voice smooths away the concern I see on Lilly's face and she looks towards him with a small smile of gratitude.

"I didn't mean too, I promise." She says as if any of us still didn't believe her. "I thought Gaz was further away around the corner when I leaped at him."

"It's ok, Tiger Lilly," I say, keeping my voice soft and soothing. "I believe you."

"You do?" Her wide eyes and pale face framed by black hair tugs at my heartstrings. "Of course little one." I tap my nose. "Even if I had my doubts, I can smell lies."

"Oh, yeah." I can see her deflate a little at that realisation. "So you'll always know if I'm lying?"

"Yes. Just like I know if everyone else is lying. Shane and I will teach you how to tell these things."

"And Archiel?" She asks, curiosity on her expression.

"You know Archiel?" I frown down at her, not having expected her to know who the new medic was.

"Yeah, I met her when she first came here. She's very nice. She tried to teach me how to flick a needle."

"Flick...What?" I ask staring at Ghost and Gaz for an explanation. Gaz just throws his hands in the air and Ghost looks at me like he'd been caught doing something with his pants around his ankles.

"The medic... She can uhhh... Do this trick with a needle or tooth pick. Puts it between her fingers and flicks it with pin point accuracy. She tried to teach a couple of us when we saw her teaching Lils, but even I struggled with it. I think it requires smaller fingers and better dexterity than even I have."

I raise an eyebrow. "You couldn't do it?" My voice is filled with incredulity at the prospect that Ghost couldn't do it.

"I only tried the once, it's not like I've practiced it," he grumbled, clearly not happy that I was showing as much surprise as I was at his lack of ability. 

"Huh, think Archiel will teach me?" I say looking towards Lilly, my voice genuine. 

"I think she will," she exclaims happily. "We can learn together!" She's back to bouncing in my lap excitedly, and for the first time I'm glad her growth was stunted as I doubt I'd have managed to not get squashed in her excitement.

"Sounds good, Tiger Lilly." I wrap my arms around her waist to settle her excited wriggling. "Now, how about you tell me your hunting stories?" And I know I've asked the right thing when she grins and Gaz groans.