Author's Note: Okay; this is the first I've uploaded in a long, long time. I'm a little rusty, this is probably awful, but meh. I'll go back and rewrite later because I'm honestly not entirely happy with it. I need to start somewhere though.
Also- I'm looking for REVIEWS on this. Please let me know if this is interesting at all; otherwise I'm not going to keep going. I'm threatening you all MUAHAHAHA. Also, Corporal Dunn doesn't get enough love so blah. I also realise it's not the longest chapter in the world, but I'm slowly getting back into this thing! I'm also relatively new to CoD, so if you can correct me at any point, please, please do so. It will be greatly appreciated.
Any and all mistakes are unintentional; enjoy!
One; Hell and Back
Bullets are flying everywhere; comrades are falling all around her. Dillon is screaming, agonised shouts and sobs and, for the love of God, she can't see him. She shoots, she reloads, she aims, she shoots again, she moves position, and she passes another fallen friend. The heat is smouldering and unbearable and she's sweating so much that her gun is close to slipping from her hands.
She moves without thinking anymore; her thoughts focussed entirely on her friend, on the man who helped her through everything, her commanding officer – where is he? – and is so shocked when a bullet grazes her arm that she can barely manage to scream. She looks up, sees dark hair and hears pained shouting, hears someone shouting at her to move, to get away, and she looks up-
It's stifling hot when she exits the truck, dark hair pulled back from her face as she surveys her surroundings.
Groups of people linger all over the hot desert base, cleaning weapons, laughing and joking and playing games and over by the edge of the base is a group of Privates training with their weapons. Tess recognises Sergeant Foley, standing before them all and looking more frustrated than anything else but as she grabs her bag from the truck, her mind is focussed entirely on something else.
She can hear Foley from halfway across the base, yelling orders to a Private Allen, but she has eyes only for the entrance to The Pit, where she can see the man who brought her here. General Shepherd is talking to two people but he's noticed her and is waving her over. Tess's bag is now slung over her shoulder, a comforting weight that brings her mind off the eyes following her, staring at her and helping her to ignore the whispers. She dodges a basketball and ignores apologies.
"Corporal," greets Shepherd genially, turning to face her as she approaches. She doesn't miss the way his eyes linger on her face.
"General," she returns with a smile. Her eyes dart over the two soldiers standing on either side of him, "I'm not interrupting, am I?"
"Not at all," answers Shepherd. "Welcome to Afghanistan."
"Can't say I'm happy to be here," replies Tess shortly. "I was told I was being discharged after leaving the hospital."
"Well, I called in a favour."
Tess forces a small smile, unable to do or say much else. Being the only survivor of a mission gone wrong and winding up in the hospital for four months tends to exhaust a person, especially when they were now so permanently scarred mentally and physically that it was difficult to tell if things would ever be the same again. Shepherd dismisses the two soldiers and gestures for Tess to walk down into The Pit with him and his eyes are kept resolutely forward the whole time.
Shepherd looks like a tired man, his face aged and drawn and his hair greying; she knows he's seen his fair share of war and he is a good General, even if he is harder than any other she'd met. Tess doesn't know where they are walking nor does she particularly care, still too pissed off that she isn't going home.
"No disrespect, sir," she starts, a touch irritated, "but you better have a good reason for getting me out here."
Phoenix is a strange place for her to be, Tess will admit, and she's never really been one to questions orders, especially when they come from as high a place as General Shepherd, but this is the last place Tess wants to be. There's someone leaning against a table at the start of the course but Tess doesn't really pay that much attention to him, still waiting for Shepherd to answer her question.
He doesn't.
"Corporal Dunn," greets Shepherd and the man looks up. He glances at Tess for a second and he doesn't react to her the way she expects. It's a welcome reprieve from the stares.
"Nice scar," he says casually, like he's seen worse. Tess stares back at him, stone-faced, and says nothing in return.
"This is Corporal Teresa Miller," introduces Shepherd and Tess is somewhat grateful that she didn't have to introduce herself. She shakes hands with Dunn and nods. She's pleased to note that she's roughly the same height as him.
"Don't say much, do ya?" he jokes and Tess's lips tilt upwards.
"Nothing to say," she answers.
"I'll leave you to it," Shepherd interrupts and before Tess can ask what he means, he's walking away.
Tess watches him go, gritting her teeth and shaking her head, and turns back to look at Dunn. He's watching her with interest and she notices that he's not afraid to look at her. She shrugs and walks to the table, picking up the Desert Eagle and the AK-47, making sure to strap a knife onto her belt too. When she glances up, Dunn is checking his own Desert Eagle.
"Any idea why I'm here?" she asks him conversationally and his eyes snap to hers instantly. Obviously he didn't expect her to speak. She raises her eyebrows at him and waits for him to gather himself.
"Not a clue," he answers eventually and with a shrug. "Although I heard General Shepherd wants to pull a shooter from our unit for some special op. Maybe you're here to fill in?"
"Maybe," she replies bitterly.
And doesn't that make her feel worse. After everything she's been through, she's here just to fill in for some little shit that gets to go off on a special op and be a hero. Tess tries not to let it get to her as she prepares to run the course but it's always there in the back of her mind, bugging at her. Maybe, if she'd come out of that op without the bloody scar on her face…
"You okay?" Dunn asks. Tess realises she's been clenching and unclenching her fist and saying nothing for about a minute now.
"I'm fine," she snaps. "Let's get this bloody thing over with."
"Okay then," replies Dunn and if he found her behaviour odd, he doesn't say so. He opens the gate and steps aside, saying, "Timer starts as soon as the first target pops. Good luck."
She clears the course in 25.4 seconds.
"Impressive," says Dunn when she finishes. Tess huffs and puts the weapons back where she found them, unwilling to speak about the course and too pissed to trust herself not to whine constantly about it if she does.
"Could have been better," she mutters instead.
"Still, I doubt Shepherd wants you for the prima-donna squad."
"Is that a compliment?"
"No-" splutters Dunn, "Yes- What?"
Tess smirks and walks past him, lifting her hand in a goodbye gesture but not turning to look at him. She's had enough of him for one day, she's had enough of people for one day, but it's far from over. She sighs, long and drawn, and tries not to groan when Shepherd comes to meet her.
"Impressive, Corporal," he says, "I knew I had a good feeling about you."
"Not that good if it means I'm stuck here instead of going on your special op," Tess snaps before she can think. She looks at him, an apology on her lips, but Shepherd just shrugs.
"It's not an op I can send you on," he tells her seriously. Tess sighs and shakes her head.
"You still haven't told me why I'm here, sir."
Shepherd looks at her, long and hard, and nods. Tess folds her arms across her chest, dark hair falling off her shoulder as she looks up at him and waits. She needs an answer from him; she needs to know that coming out here is worth it and not just some way to keep her mind off all the shit that's happened in her life lately.
"I called you out here because I don't think you're done," he says sharply. He doesn't sound angry but there's definitely an edge to his voice. "If you think that you're done because your face is scarred, if you think that's enough to discharge you, then feel free to leave right now. I won't stop you."
"Then why bother taking me all the way out here, sir?"
"Why don't you figure out the answer to that? You're a smart girl; you got out of Iraq on your own, you finished that mission on your own, I'm sure you can figure out why I brought you here."
He heads back to oversee the Privates running the Pit before Tess can say anything else. She's more than a little pissed off now, angry that Shepherd didn't just give a straight answer, and furious that he doesn't consider her good enough for a special op or even the prima-donna squad, as Dunn had so elegantly put it. She storms back down to the Pit, startling a Private just on his way in, and too consumed by rage to want anything other than a distraction.
"Running again, Corporal?" asks Dunn casually when he sees her coming down to the Pit again.
"No," she snaps and she winces at how harsh she sounds. She sighs and, feeling like she has to provide as excuse, says, "Sorry. I'm having a shit day."
"Let's hope that we have a Private who screws up big time," says Dunn in a quiet voice. "That'll cheer you up."
Tess huffs a laugh and remains quiet as Dunn greets the Private that entered behind Tess. She watches them interact in silence and stares the Private down when he looks over at her, smirking to herself when the poor soul struggles to refill the ammo in the Desert Eagle. The Private starts the course and Dunn leans against the table beside her.
"That was mean," he says but he's smiling. Tess shrugs.
"He shouldn't have been staring," she says.
The Private doesn't do terribly but he doesn't do well either. It's the Private that runs after him that Dunn and Tess are both impressed with – begrudgingly, on Tess's part. She doesn't doubt that Shepherd will want this one for his special op. She pulls the tie out of her hair and runs her hands through the short, uneven lengths, retying it again as the Private – First Class Joseph Allen, she learns as she picks up a weapon - comes to a stop beside Dunn.
"Good job, Private," says Dunn and Allen nods. He doesn't seem arrogant in the slightest, like some people Tess has met in her time, and Tess actually finds herself hoping she'll get to work with him more. He reminds her of Dillon.
Dunn adds, "That's the fastest I've seen in a while. Except for the 141 guys."
"Prima-Donna squad?" asks Tess sceptically. At Dunn's nod, she says, immaturely, she'll admit, though she can't quite bring herself to care, "What the hell kind of a name is that?"
Allen looks at her and opens his mouth as if to say something else, but there are shouts from above; in particular she hears Sergeant Arnett, ordering people to move, that 'they' have blown the main bridge. Allen takes off up the stairs and Dunn starts to move. He picks up a SCAR-H and turns to Tess, holding it out to her.
"You coming?"
Shepherd's words echo through her head: … if you think that's enough to discharge you, then feel free to leave right now. I won't stop you. She doesn't want to be here. She doesn't want to join the Rangers when she knows for a fact that she's good enough for the Task Force. Why should she go with them when she's better than them? Why should she give Shepherd the satisfaction of knowing that she's not going to leave? Why should she have to put up with the stares and the whispers that will undoubtedly follow her wherever she goes?
Because it's what I love to do, she realises sullenly.
Tess knows there's a thrill in being in an active warzone; a rush in defending comrades and shooting down threats. You get the job done and there's no bigger accomplishment than that. A scar is nothing compared to the rush of war.
"Everyone get in the vehicles, we're moving out!"
She takes the gun from Dunn without a word and follows him to the trucks.