A Ranger's hunt

Bonding

Disclaimer:all pictures are owned by the respective artists, Ubisoft owns all characters except for the ones I've obviously put into story

A day after I returned to Hereford, Meghan wanted to do something, said she'd die if she had to stay in the bed another day. I laughed when she said that before suggesting "Why don't we get some coffee and decide what we want to do with today?" Meg looked thoughtful before nodding "sounds amazing" I helped her up and we walked to the garage "I can't drive so how are we getting there? you don't have a car" I looked at her "I said I don't have a car, never said I don't have a vehicle" she looked confused but followed me as we went deeper into the garage coming upon my girl.

Turning to Meghan I said "this is my vehicle" while motioning to the bike. She was wide eyed "I've never ridden a bike before" I walked over to her with a helmet "you trust me right?"she nodded "with my life" I smiled "then come on" I started the bike as Meghan got on behind me. I walk out onto the road and then fed her some gas picking up speed making meg nervous as she quickly wrapped her arms around me and held tightly as we exited the gate and joined the highway. I quickly gave it more gas and picked up speed weaving through traffic while Meghan slowly becoming more comfortable. We quickly reached our destination and I parked outside. She gave me her helmet and gave me a hug "thank you for the ride, it was amazing" smiling crazy. I nodded "anytime M" we walked inside. After we ordered we took a seat and started talking "so when did you learn to ride a bike (N/N)?" I thought "I think I was 22 and I got taught by my last ex" Meghan's mood soured quickly at ex "wait you said last ex and 22, how old are you?" I faked offense "how dare you?" Before laughing "34" Meghan looked "so you haven't had a girlfriend since 22?" I nodded "she left a sour taste in my mouth, only good thing she did was teach me to ride" Meghan looked intrigued "what happened?" I looked down "I caught her with a random guy when I came home for leave." She gaspd "that's horrible, I haven't had a boyfriend in a few years. There's one guy I'm sort of interested in right now but I wouldn't say crush yet, you know?" I nodded "yeah, I think I'm falling for someone but I'm not really ready to tell them" oh the irony. She leaned forward "really? Who?" I chuckled "no one except Craig knows, I think a few others are starting to get an idea but I'm not telling." She sighed "buzzkill" I laughed "I guess so, hey I was wondering do you want to learn how to ride when your arm is better?" She perked up "really?" I nodded "yeah I'll take you out on my bike and you can learn" she nodded her head so fast I thought it was gonna fall off "meg you're okay calm down."  She looked at me "I've wanted to learn for a while now" I sat back "good, it's fun and I need a riding partner." She looked giddy. I looked at my phone "Christmas is coming up, what happens at rainbow?" Meghan looked at me "Oh yeah, this is your first Christmas with us. Well we all get presents for each other and then we either stay at the base or go home." I nodded "what do you do?" She looked confused "do you go home or stay?" She had a look of realization "I stay, my parents and I don't have the strongest relationship." I nodded "why don't you come to my mothers house with Craig and I?" She looked relieved and then confused "Craig goes to your house for Christmas?" I nodded "it's how we stayed close while on different deployments." She nodded "yeah, I'll go with you two." I smiled "good my mothers wanted to meet you" she asked "why?" I shrugged "motherly intuition? I don't know" she laughed as we finished our coffee. I held the door for her as we exited and got on the bike.
          Quickly getting back on the highway "Hey, Meg!" I yelled to get her to hear me "Yes?!" She yelled back "Hold on!" I felt her grip tighten as I popped a wheelie and accelerated through traffic "I hate you!" I heard Meghan yelled. I slowed down "you're an asshole (Y/N)!" I laughed "you love me" she laughed "no I want to kill you" I gasped "now you're just being mean." We pull off and through the gate back into the base eventually we reached the garage and I parked my bike. Once we stored the helmets. We walked into the mess hall laughing and got some food. Craig was there as was Eliza and Grace saying our hellos we sat and started talking Craig asked "so where were you two? Hopefully wrapping your tool" I laughed "We took a ride and got some coffee" Eliza asked "took a ride? You have a car?" I laughed "no" "so you did wrap your tool?" I laughed even harder and Meghan was red "no we took a ride on my bike" Craig had a realization "I forgot you had your bike" Meghan couldn't hold it anymore "He's gonna teach me to ride!" And Craig looked at me "you got a second bike?" Meghan looked confused while I answered "no it's still the same one" now Craig looked shocked "I can't believe it! The worlds coming to an end." Everyone at the table was extremely confused. Meghan looked towards Craig "what are you talking about?" Craig said "he hasn't let anyone drive his bike since he got it 9 years ago." Everyone turned to me, I zoned back in to see everyone looking at me "what?" "Is it true?" Asked Grace "is what true?" Grace answered again "you've never let anyone drive your bike?" I thought for a second "yeah no, no one but me has ever driven that bike" Meghan looked unsure "So I'm going to be the second one to drive your bike?" I nodded. Craig looked on in shock "if god came down and talked to us right now I'd wouldn't be as shocked as I am to hear someone is going to drive (Y/N)'s bike" I chuckled "don't worry old friend the world isn't ending yet, anyway are you coming to moms for Christmas this year?" He sighed "I would but I don't want to leave Meghan here alone again" I nodded "well that sucks, you're gonna be here all alone." He looked confused and then looked at Meghan and she confirmed "she's coming with us?" I laughed "yes" he yelled "Yes! oh thank god!" Everyone looked confused Craig realized what he was doing and looked at the rest of us while I was laughing "well you see (Y/N)'s mom makes some killer cookies for her "Little Wolf" to bring back and she always makes me a special platter of them ever since I first spent Christmas with them." Meghan looked at me confused "Little wolf?" I explained "my family is Wolf Clan and I'm the youngest of the family so my mother calls me Little Wolf" Meghan and the rest looked intrigued until Eliza spoke up "wait, why does Craig go to your moms house for Christmas?" I looked at her "well red, Craig and I serve different deployments it was a way to keep up with each other and now it just turned into a tradition plus my mom likes the company." She nodded Grace asked "and why is Meghan going?" Craig also voiced his wonder "my mom wants to meet her" Craig looks surprised "so she knows?" I nodded "that woman has some mystical powers." He laughed "yeah she does." Meghan looked at me "what does she know?" I waved her off "you'll find out in 2 weeks." I stood up "where are you going?" Asked Eliza I turned "well I'm going to work out and then practice with my aiming, why?" They looked at me weird "what?" "You're arguably the best sniper here, and you're practicing shooting?" I nodded "if you want to stay in first, act like you're second." Meghan and Craig stood up "you want to help us get better accuracy?" I nodded "yeah, but I'm working out first" they nodded "any reason you do things in this order?" I looked at Meghan "if I get accurate when my arms are killing me and tired, I'll be pinpoint when they're comfortable and healthy" I heard "makes sense" from my right. we got into the gym and I looked at Meghan "don't push yourself do a little less than normal until we make sure your arms good okay?" She nodded and we set to doing our routines I spotted meg while she was benching. After a 3 minutes her arms started to get tired and I help lift the bar as she sat up I patted her shoulder "good job how you feeling?" She smiled "stronger, better even though my arms are killing me" I nodded "good I'm proud of you" standing up I moved to start doing my routine, after an hour we were all properly destroyed. Meghan has done well keeping up with us even after my fuck up which resulted in her getting bitten. I sat down and started thinking she must've seen my face because she came over and sat down "what's wrong (N/N)?" I sighed "it was my fault" she looked confused "what do you mean? What was?" I looked at her shoulder "it's my fault you got bit" she shook her head "how? How is any of that your fault?" I looked at her "I should've had better accuracy, I should've dropped them faster." She sighed "you were panicking, I was too I couldn't clear the jam" I nodded before saying "yeah I was. And that's the problem, I don't panic and then the moment I needed to be calm I was panicking and spraying" she put her hand on my shoulder "look at me, (Y/n). I don't blame you, I never blamed you. Don't blame yourself." I looked down "I can't promise anything." She nodded "I'm not asking you to, I'm asking you to let the blame go." I stood up and gave her a hand before looking at Craig "ready to become more accurate?" They nodded and we were off to the Range. When we walked in I looked to the quartermaster and waved "hey Dave" he replied "how ya doing today (Y/N)?" I replied "living the dream my guy" he looked at me "that bad huh?" I nodded "what can I get for you?" I looked at them and then back to Dave "I need 2 mk17s" he left to get them Craig asked "why mk17s?" I turned to Craig "one.) you use one so you'll be used to it and two.) Meghan uses an mpx so getting used to 7.62 recoil will make 9mm recoil almost nonexistent" he nodded as Dave came back with the guns "thanks man" he waved me off and I gave the rifles to each of them. "Let's go" we walked to a secluded part of the range and I put up targets "I want you to fire and be as accurate as you can at 100 meters" they both nodded as I said "fire" I watched as they fired Meghan was trying too hard to control the recoil and Craig not enough, their stand was loose correct but loose, they're breathing is sporadic. Those were the main ones to fix. Their guns cleared empty. I started off explaining what was going wrong I looked to Craig "you're too lax with the rifle, there's no real control you just keep it centered as it climbs, Meghan your too strict with the gun you don't let it truly kick... you're trying to keep the gun in the same spot, meaning you're taking the full shock of the recoil messing up your aim since you're feeling the full extent of it. Instead try resetting every cycle and re-positioning your aim as the gun kicks rest your mind to "this is the first shot" next both of your stances are too loose, your knees need to be firmer in positioning as do your arms and you need to lean forward a bit more and your breathing it's all types of inconsistent pick a strong steady breathing pattern and keep it on that pattern" they both nodded determined "take your position" they aimed I walked to each and corrected the improper parts then said "fire" and watched as they tried to fix what I told them to it was more accurate definitely but they have to keep doing it until it's subconscious. The day seemed to fly as I helped them iron out the small problems they had while firing and they improved greatly Meghan was up from 65% to 73% and Craig was up from 58% to 70%. I'm proud of both of them. We were going to go watch a movie until Harry could be heard over the PA "Dreamcatcher, Valkyrie, Blackbeard, pulse and lion to briefing room 2 immediately" I sighed and looked at them "we should probably go" on our way out I said bye to Dave and returned the guns. Meghan and Craig were trying to figure out what the mission would be about I was quiet which Craig picked up on "you know something" I looked over "I got the location of a white mask compound in the Congo rainforest. We're probably doing a long term recon mission since we have a lot of intel ops called for this mission." They nodded it made sense. We arrived and sat down I caught up with lion and when Jack arrived I looked over "Mr. World Wide, where have you been? I haven't seen you in a while" he smiled "ah the Brave, I've been around, killing masks you know the usual" I nodded "I see" we were about to continue talking when Harry walked in "nice to see you're all here, I hope you don't have plans for the next week and a half because you're going to the Congo. Dreamcatcher obtained intel on a compound. You're to infil, monitor and track enemy movements and habits. At the end of the 10 days you'll exfil. Are we clear?" We all replied yessir "Valkyrie you're team lead for this mission" she seemed surprised before I put my hand on her shoulder "it'll be fine come on let's get our gear" she nodded and we all left to get our gear but I hung back "Harry, what do we do if were spotted?" He looked at me "what you do best, win" I nodded "I'll get it done should it come to that" as I walked out I noticed Meghan waiting for me she popped off the wall and we ran to grab our gear. After 15 minutes we were on the plane and making our way to the Congo.