Days were always so cold now. There was always a constant breeze that was blowing through the air that hit you in the face and brought you back to reality whenever you found yourself possibly seeing a happy memory in your head. Days were always so boring and dull now and there was never anyone around. There was a distinct lack of friends, parents at work, siblings out being educated and everyone else who was around just looked upon you in a condescending manner so that you were reminded of what you had lost every day and how sympathetic everyone felt towards you.

Every new day seemed to merge into the last and they all passed by so slowly because there was just nothing to do anymore. It was a huge contrast going from spending days on trains heading to new towns or beaches and laughing in fields to being home and standing on the gravel watching everything carry on around you whilst the world has stopped turning for you and you're constantly asking for someone to let you off the ride that you got on.

It's been four months of bleak days and lonely nights spent crying into pillows holding on to the dark blue beret that was left in her bed. Four months of rainy days and nights of lightning and terror of being alone. Four months of thinking constantly of missing the one person that has ever meant anything to you.

Four months later and she still remembers the day that they met as clear as anything.

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The red headed girl was stood at edge of the street looking down the road at the small figure of a boy who was walking towards her kicking rocks underneath his feet and trudging his way home waiting for the onslaught that would happen later that day. When he got nearer, the girl opened her mouth to speak or even yell at him regarding the situation behind him getting sent home from school when yelling already filled the air.

"YES CORPORAL"

Both the girl and the boy stood tall and upright at the yelling that they had heard and rolled their eyes at the sound of the boots slamming down on the gravel below them figuring that it was just another day of the soldiers getting beasted on the parade square for not doing something.

"JAMES ROBERT FITCH!" The red head yelled down the street. He immediately quickened his pace towards her in an effort to get home faster.

"Don't yell at me bitch, you have no right. You went through the same at school" He replied with a moody tone to his voice, knowing that he was both right and wrong with what he had said.

"You're just giving them the reason to think you're even more of an army brat. Get inside; Mum is going to flip at you when Dad gets home later. Hope you're ready for that you little shit." She replied whilst shoving him inside the house. Before she went in herself, she turned at the sound of running boots and noticed a section running past her house. A group of both men and women bearing blue berets and combats were looking pissed off and whispering under their breath. At the front was a tall female with blonde hair that stuck out from under her beret. When she reached the redhead, she turned her head to her right side and kept eye contact before smiling and winking at her. With this, the girl went inside and closed the door on the girl that she had just seen for the first time, she closed the door on the girl that had made her heart flutter and bite her lip to hold back the girlish giggle.

From that moment onwards, the red head looked out for the blonde at every chance that she possibly could when going to college and coming home, when she was running errands around the base and picking up things from the shop, when she was running to the NAAFI to locate her father to ask him some stupid question from her mother but she didn't see her for another week until she went in to find her father regarding a rather stupid request.

"Dad?" She spoke in a gentle and quiet tone of voice like she always did when he was around his men and work colleagues. He turned around and smiled instantly at his daughter before one of his men stood up quickly and offered her his seat before pulling up another. She thanked him and blushed at the offer, no matter how often it happened, she would probably never get used to the treatment.

"For some strange reason, I need your permission to leave the base" She started at him. He looked at her blankly like he did not understand what she was trying to say.

"So can you like come with me so they let me go or like write them or note or something? All I want to do is go for a walk to the damn field, I'm tired of being here today. It's my day off college" She finished with. He blinked and pulled a face that showed his lack of happiness.

"It's not safe outside the base recently though Emily" He replied with a stern tone of voice.

"And it's safe in Afghanistan? Do I have to write a note exempting you from service regarding the issue of safety?" She spoke hotly, clearly annoyed. Her father's men were looking at him expectantly before laughing for a second and falling silent once more.

"Don't talk to me like that Emily. I am too busy to be able to walk you over to the guard's office right now. Maybe tomorrow."

"Sergeant Fitch, if you can't be relieved of duty then I'd happily take… Emily was it? Out and then return her later to your wife's door?" The blonde spoke with confidence and a clear voice up until asking if her name was correct. Robert Fitch looked at the young Private before breaking a slight smile and allowing it.

"Fine, seeing as though it's what she wants. If she comes back harmed or not at all Campbell, on your head be it." He spoke fiercely before getting back into conversation with his men. Emily stood up and smiled at the blonde girl who quickly downed her drink and picked up her beret.

The red headed girl was currently sat on the edge of the street looking out over the base that was across from her, looking at the recruits that were stood on the parade square stomping their boots and yelling along to commands. She thought about the blonde girl that she had seen there a number of times after she left the base with her for a number of hours.

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It had started to rain but yet she still stayed at the edge of the street. She heard her mother yelling from the door for her to come inside or she would get sick but she gave up after ten minutes knowing that her daughter would not listen and would come back in when she was ready. She couldn't really feel the rain; it didn't have an effect on her skin. Emily was always so cold that it no longer bothered her but she knew that it was still raining and hitting the puddles around her shoes when it stopped hitting her head and she turned to notice black boots that were bulled and shined to perfection stood over her before legs lowered into a squat next to her. She turned to see the face of Rifleman Cook who was holding a black umbrella over her head and ignoring his own, letting the rain hit his shortly shaved head. He did not wear a smile but yet he didn't look sad, he looked stressed and had a face of stone.

"How did we get here Ems?" He said not to her, but to the rain cascading in front of them before he took a seat next to her, not caring for the kit he was about to get dirty and wet.

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"So where did you want to go little Fitch?" The blonde girl asked her. Emily turned to the side of her and looked at the girl. As much as she wanted to say thank you for helping her to get out and as much as she thought that she looked lovely, she didn't like the idea of a soldier escorting and taking her around. It wasn't how she worked. She didn't appreciate the soldier lifestyle and she knew how they all were.

"You don't need to escort me, you can just leave and head back to your own place you know, I won't tell my Dad" She replied shortly.

"I offered to take you out because I knew you wanted to, that and you look nice so I wanted to spend some time with you. It might be nice talking with a girl every once in a while you know, getting away from the typical squaddie talk about tits and chicken." She said with a smirk on her face whilst tucking her beret into her pocket.

"Tits and chicken? Bit of a strange combination isn't it?" Emily replied. The blonde girl nodded and they walked out to the gates of the base before finding their way to the fields that were beyond them. There were a large number of acres of land around the base that were used for training but the bit they were going to was not Military owned and featured a rather tall and nice tree that Emily liked to sit under every once in a while. They reached the tree and Emily sat down whilst the blonde took a knee looking out towards the field which annoyed Emily as she looked as though she was on operation.

"I'm not your fucking package Campbell" She spoke angrily, remembering the soldier's last name that turned around on command quickly. Her face went from stony to soft and she blushed.

"I'm sorry, it's just… my job. It's what I do automatically. It's what I've been trained to do. I figured you wanted time alone"

"And you said you wanted to talk about things other than tits or chicken"

"Well, I don't mind talking about those things but it gets tiring you know"

"Then we can talk about different things. For starters, why don't you tell me your name?" She asked. "Or must I call you Campbell or Private?"

"Private Naomi Campbell, it's lovely to meet you Miss Fitch" She introduced herself. The blonde finally had a name and Emily could finally address her with it. After that, they spent hours talking in the fields before Naomi did exactly what she promised and walked her all the way to her door. Emily went to sleep happy that night.

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"Do you hate Freddie?" He asked her in his monotone voice like he was scared of the answer. He wiped some of the rain off his nose before she answered and made sure that the umbrella was kept above her head.

"As much as I want to, I'll never hate Freddie. As much as I sometimes think this is his entire fault, I know that it isn't. I just sometimes wonder whether it was all worth it." Cook nodded in agreement, he believed everything that the red haired girl had said and he knew exactly what she had meant.

"Freddie was always a sound guy you know. All the way through school, he just kept me going or he got into a lot of trouble trying. Him and JJ, bloody hell, how I miss them both. Weird how things all work out in the end innit" He rambled to himself. "It seems just like yesterday that we were all in the pub together getting ready for Katie's big football wedding to that geezer."

Emily could remember that day too. It was still a fresh memory; she could still smell the Fosters that Cook and Freddie had in front of them. She could smell the potent and large amount of vodka that Effy had put in the rest of their cokes under the table because they couldn't be arsed spending the money that they had. She remembered the smell of Pandoras vomit on the table. Strawberry. So strong.

Everything haunted her.

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After Naomi had taken Emily out to the field that day, they found themselves spending a lot more time together whenever they could. Emily's parents were happy because she was smiling and she was going to college and talking to people again and her father especially was happy due to the fact that he knew there was someone taking care of her that was military trained and was convinced that she was in some of the safest hands in the country. They spent all of the time that they could together. 3 days a week, Emily would return home and see Naomi around the base doing her training or doing her job and would give her a smile which would be returned eagerly and then when Naomi finished, she would run over the Fitch house and spend the day with the red head laughing at the day that they had, listening to music or even doing coursework, it got to the point where she never bothered getting changed after work anymore and just showed up in all of her kit still.

The one day off a week that she had, Emily would sleep in late and make sure that her coursework was done so that she could meet Naomi over at the NAAFI before Naomi would get changed and they would go into town together and laugh about everything or go and sit under their tree on the fields. Every Friday when Emily had to stay behind late at college and Naomi finished a little bit earlier, Naomi would run into town and down to the college and be ready and waiting to pick the small red haired girl up and walk her all the way home. She got a lot of strange looks in college because of it but Emily didn't mind, she didn't mind because she had a gorgeous girl picking her up and no one would say a word because she was a uniform, she was army and everyone already knew that Emily was an army brat.

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Here you go guys, something new from me as I haven't been around in a very long time really. This is a new story that I was
recently inspired to write about. Let me know what you think through your reviews and stuff like that, it would be nice to get
some feedback whether positive or constructive. I already know how it's all going to play out, it's just writing it all =/