𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭'𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞

New Girl

"Keegan?"
Katrina peered into the doorway of Merricks old office. She was only coincidentally walking past when she heard audible frustration and the rustling of papers coming from inside the room. When she pushed the door open, she could see Keegan behind the desk going over some papers. He looked frustrated and in a rush.

He didn't answer her but motioned for her to come in. He looked visibly stressed over something, stress was not something Katrina usually ever noticed about him.

"Are you okay?" Katrina asked as she stepped closer to the desk where she noticed files and papers everywhere.

"Perfect. Never better."

"Keegan."

He stopped and looked up at her. With a sigh he sat down in the chair.

"Talk to me, what's going on?" She asked with a soft tone.

"Laswell just made me acting commander so now I have to figure this shit out." He explained.

"She can do that?"

"Apparently. It makes sense, not saying I'm not up to it but under the circumstances I would rather not have all of this responsibility right now. I've been trying to find Merricks next of kin but, his parents are dead and he's got no other immediate family I can contact, at least from what I've found." Keegan explained as it was clear that all of this weighed on him, he already had quite a bit of responsibility since becoming a captain but now, this was a whole new arena.

"What about arrangements? Does he have a Will or something?" She asked with hesitation.

"That's what I'm looking for right now. I've spoken with the coroner, he'll be flown back to the states and buried in Arlington, next to the others of course. And the ceremony will go according to how the Ghost's procedures for a funeral of a fallen member go, that I am not willing to negotiate on I don't care who it is." He explained.
And it is true, every unit has their own way of honoring their fallen, the Ghost's of course have special proceedings as well.

"Okay..when will that be?" She asked as he slowly nodded his head.

"It'll be in two days. Laswell approved for us to leave, Task Force will be there too. Honestly, if she had said no we'd be going anyway so her approval doesn't mean shit to me." Keegan explained as he leaned forward on the desk as he flipped through some more files.

"What about the unit?" She asked as his eyes met her's, he looked as if he wasn't sure what she was talking about.

"What do you mean?"

"Are we finishing this deployment? Are we disbanding? You're the lead here-.."

"I-..I don't know, this all just happened a couple hours ago so, just give me a little bit." Keegan explained as he didn't hold eye contact with her.

"Keegan, I don't want to be rude but, I think this has us falling apart just a bit. Neptune and Kick left to go somewhere and haven't come back. Hesh and Logan are at each other's throats practically, and I was going to leave-.."

"Yeah, I know." He stared at her coldly before pulling out something from his pocket and throwing it down on the desk in front of her, "Logan found me, he gave me that saying you were done. Unfortunately for you, I don't accept your resignation." Keegan told her as she stared at her mask that lie on the table. Keegan immediately turning his gaze back to the piles of files and papers on the desk.

The sun shined through the window just behind the desk, presenting a beam of sunlight across the wide open room and over the desk as the room went silent as the two didn't say another word for a good minute.