Title:
Haunted
Author:
lillyg
Characters/Pairings:
Ed
Word Count:
3x100
Prompt:
#1 Scorpio, #5 Trigger, #12 Retaliate
Rating:
PG
Warnings:
None
Spoilers:
None
Summary:
Being a sniper isn't as easy as it seems.
Disclaimer:
Unfortunately, I own anything, that including my pretty fantasies
about Spike and a shower…
Betas:
By the lovely paranoid_woman
Author's
notes: Feedback is really
appreciated, as much as constructive reviews, no need to flame!
Written for the LJ community Flashpoint_sru.
Sometimes Ed thinks that he could have chosen another job. A job where people don't hurt other people. A job where people don't kill people.
By being a sniper, you don't have to be close to the person. You don't need to talk to them. You don't need to know them. You don't need to understand them.
Sometimes he feels like a coward because he just has to follow orders. You just need the Sergeant to say "Scorpio" and the job has to be done. A single word and you take someone's life. And cowardice seems to make life easier.
At the beginning, it seems easier of course. Then you discover that it's more complicated than your first thought. You don't deal with people, but you deal with their ghost. The person you shot has a past, a history, a family.
More than the killing, the aftermath is affecting you because you see that look on their family's faces. A son. A wife. A mother. Even if the one you shot was the bad one, even if it was their choice to take the wrong way, you're the one who pressed the trigger. You're the one who took a life.
And for that they hate you. They want you to pay. They want you to be the one responsible of their loved one's acts. They accuse you to take the easy way. Because you never tried to make them change. You just shot them.
But it's not your job to make them change. You're not a social worker. You're not a psychologist. You work for the Strategic Response Unit.
Sometimes Ed whishes that some of them fight back, but he is a sniper; a long shot and the target is down. And dead people never retaliate. But their ghost does.