He was sitting on the Bus, in one of the comfy white recliners by the windows as if he belonged there. 'This is wrong,' he thought,' I'm not supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be at the base in Havana.' The last place he should be was in the Bus, sitting across from Skye with two Battleship boards between them. This was eerily familiar, his board littered with white pegs indicating misses and nearly all his battleships sunk, and Skye on the other side with a chesire-cat grin.
'No, don't smile at me!' he tried to tell her,' Don't trust me.' But he just couldn't get the words to come out his mouth, he couldn't get her to understand. She was still smiling at him, beautiful brown eyes looking at him like he was her most trusted friend. Then those perfectly shaped lips parted and like a melody, "E5," fell from them.
"Miss," he answered, or at least his voice did. Ward didn't actually mean to answer her back, it just sort of came out automatically. 'No! Don't play the stupid board game!' he yelled at himself, as if that could stop him. When nothing happened, he tried to scream at Skye,' Skye! This isn't real, none of this. Please remember! You hate me, I betrayed you!' But if she could hear his silent pleas, he never would know, she just kept on smiling.
Then he felt his own mouth open and he was speaking again, but not what he wanted to say," G2."
He saw her smile and her eyes sparkled. "Missed me!" she sang, nearly bouncing in her seat.
"Missed me… Missed me… Missed me…" The words echoed in his head, even as his vision began to blur. "Missed me… Missed me…" He didmiss her. He missed her so much, and sometimes there was an ache in his chest where he was missing her so much. Then he woke up.
Grant Ward sat up -jolted, really- in his cot, breath coming out in pants. He could feel his heart beating hard in his chest, a distinct thump thump thump whenever he breathed in and out.
What had he just been dreaming about? His head fell into the palm of his right hand, willing the memory to come back. He got a flash of a smile, brown hair, and the feeling of bitter regret, but nothing more. No matter how hard he willed it to come back, he couldn't clearly recall what it was about.
All he had was a strange urge to play Battleship…