"Fuck that New Guy…"

Day 1, 12:45 p.m.

Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Task Force 1-4-1

Unknown

"Move your ass's!" MacTavish yelled in his rugged Irish accent. "Take those targets down, or I'll let Ghost use you for his target practice." He joked, or maybe he had been serious. It was hard to tell with him.

I turned to my partner, Toad to help him. He was busy firing at his targets. He was fast, and never missed. He was trained by the one and only Archer, who was one of the best shots in the fraction. Toad took down the rest of his targets, and then we begin cleaning our weapons.

I wiped the dust from my helmet screen, when Toad smiled up at me. "We finished first. Wonder what MacTavish is rushing us about."

I had glanced over my shoulder to look at MacTavish as he talked to Ghost. MacTavish did look unusually irritated that day, and I wondered if he had gotten yelled at by the general for something. However, just as I though this he smiled at something Ghost had said.

I liked Captain MacTavish. He was kind of like a bid teddy-bear. He had a kind smile, and despite being the captain he still managed to smell like whiskey. He was inviting, and friendly of all sorts. However he did look rather intimidating when angered.

Ghost caught my gaze, and lifted his signature balaclava to stick his tongue at me. He used one of this fingers to make it appear like he was pulling his eye down, and making a face at me. I flipped him the bird, and he acted as if I'd shot him.

MacTavish looked at him rather knowingly before looking back at his team. "Clean up, and prepare for a meeting, ladies." With that he left Ghost in charge, before heading inside.

Toad nodded knowingly before a soft chuckle escaped his mouth. "Told you something was up. He's probably going to force us to train with Ghost more." Toad shuttered at the thought.

I smiled at him before saying. "It's not that bad."

I had never been much of a talker, so I must have caught Toad off guard.

Toad set his rifle aside, and just stared for a moment before saying a rather distracted. "Yeah." He blinked for a second, and then scratched his chin grinning like a mad man. "I didn't know you could talk." He laughed at me before turning to look at his gun.

I'd never been too keen on talking. My father had seen to it that I knew my place in the world. He had been a cruel man, who couldn't stand me, and my mother. I think the night that he finally broke me was my birthday.

My mother had made a cake for me, and had asked me if I wanted a piece. I, being only five, couldn't really hide my excitement at the thought of having some cake. I started moving in my chair, and began twisting. My ADD began to take a hold, and instead of a normal human being, my father picked up his knife, and stabbed me in the arm.

I must have gone into some sort of shock after that because everything was relatively fuzzy. I remember my mother rushing me to the emergency room, and the police letting me play with their sirens while they talk to my mother. One officer even let me pet his search dog named Dotty.

The next day my mother packed us up, and moved us to my aunt's house in Manchester, where I met Ghost, and his younger sister Eve. Up until I'd met them, talking seemed kind of useless. I was also terrified that someone was going to try and stab me.

I glanced back at Ghost, who stood rather passively as he scribbled on his clip bored. I say his clip bored because he'd claimed it by scribbling a large skull on the back of it with the words 'Casper the Deadly Ghost' written nicely underneath it. Hell hath no fury like Ghost without his clip bored.

Ghost turned his face toward me, but I wasn't sure if he was looking at me or not. He had his damned sunglasses on again.

I looked away, and I felt my face grow a little warm. For the first time in what seemed like forever I was happy that I was wearing my helmet.

)-(

Toad walked next to me as we made our way to the rec room. He also made fun of me as we walked. "I can't believe you ran into the sliding doors." He laughed grabbing his sides.

I glared at him, but said nothing. I had been a bit distracted, besides that, it had been Ghost's fault. He had to call out my name, and cause me to lose focus. The only problem being, that my body didn't really follow my brain, and kept walking causing me to face plant into the door.

Everyone laughed, even Ghost chuckled at me, before telling me that my shoe was untied. I flipped him the bird again, because he deserved it for that one.

"Man." Toad said after he sobered up from his laughing fit. "I really hope MacTavish doesn't assign more training sessions with Ghost. I don't think I'll be able to survive it."

"They can't be that bad." I said softly still feeling a bit of ringing in my ears.

Toad looked at me, and gave me another soft chuckle before saying. "Easy for you to say. MacTavish will probably assign you extra sweeping duty. He takes it a bright side easier on you than the rest of us, Lieutenant Ghost included."

I pulled my helmet off and gave him a look.

Toad sighed before shrugging, and pushing the doors to the rec room open. "Never mind."

I paused letting the door swing shut. I thought about MacTavish, and wondered if he'd ever favored me over anyone else. I could recall a time when a group of us got caught sneaking off base to have a go at a local bar. I'd been so smashed, that I even upchucked on MacTavish as he was giving us a lecture. I remember waking up in his office, with him giving me a cup of coffee, and telling me I was on kitchen duty with Lenny for a week.

I'd never put much thought in it, but he'd taken everyone else out for a 5 mile hike, for at least a month before finally letting them off with only a minor lecture. I didn't have to go. He never even talked to me about it after that.

That wasn't the only time either. I could recall lots of other times that MacTavish let me off easy, and made other suffer the full extent of his wrath. The more I thought about it the more it unnerved me.

MacTavish was just nice right. He'd do the same thing for Scarecrow, or even Meat right?

I looked through the glass of the rec room double doors, and glanced at MacTavish. He fiddled with his paper work before laughing at something someone had said.

I felt my face go red a little. He had to just be nice. There was no way someone like him could ever-

There was a chuckle from behind me, and I jumped a little, startled by the sudden noise. I turned around quickly to see Ghost standing there waiting on me.

I gave him a questioning look, and he simply smiled at me from behind his mask, making a shooing motion with his hand.

When I didn't catch on he sighed, and simply said. "You are a hopeless bug."

"Bug?" I said as he turned me around, grabbing my shoulders.

"Yes. Bug." He said pushing me through the doors, and over to the last empty seat, which happened to be next to MacTavish.

I panicked, and twisted myself out of Ghost's hold trying to make a bee line for the back of the room. Ghost was quick, and grabbed me by the collar of my uniform, dragging me over to the chair. He plopped me down, and said very comically. "Sit. Good boy."

The men around me snickered, and I tried my best to hide my face. Red covered it, I was sure of it. Ghost however simply ignored them.

He patted me on the head and turned to MacTavish. "Reporting for duty sir. Let's get this shit over with."

I twitched a little, and Ghost simple applied more pressure to my shoulders, and told me to sit still.

I began tapping my finger nervously on my leg, and I found my legs shifting back and forth. I couldn't help it, and Ghost of all people knew that. I pled with my body to stay still. Of course that didn't work, and Ghost just chuckled at me. "Oh, Roach. What are we going to do with you?"

MacTavish chuckled at him before glancing up at the door. "Come on in." He said his Irish accent sounding louder than usual, or was it just me?

I turned to see man with brown hair. He wasn't tall, but he had wide shoulders, and long legs. He was an inch short than me, and he was a lot skinnier than me as well. His hair was a fluffy, and he had dark blue eyes that seemed full of life. He was confident in himself, but not cocky. I could tell by the way he stood, and how he walked. He didn't let the staring eyes of the Task Force unnerve him.

The man came to stand next to MacTavish, and smiled at everyone showing off his perfect white teeth.

MacTavish looked at his paper work before turning to him. "You want to introduce yourself?"

The guy shrugged and nodded his head. "I'm Ryan Stephens. My friends call me Wings. I am a former ranger, and I was asked to come here on the request of General Shepherd. Pleasure me be a part of the team." He said grinning at us, and I think then. That was my undoing.

)-(

When the room cleared out, Ghost made me stay put.

He couldn't do it like a normal person either. He held my shoulders down, and refused to let go no matter how much I twitched. When I'd gotten lose and was about to make a run for it he pushed me back down, and sat on my lap.

"Ghost! Get off!" I gasped out, trying to wiggle free from his hold.

"I can't Roach. MacTavish is got to talk with ya, and you keep trying to escape." He said simply before going back to doodling on his paper work.

"I wasn't trying to escape. If you'd just said why you were holding me down I would have-" I began but Ghost cut me off by shoving him clip bored in my face.

"I drew us." He said smugly, as he lifted up his scribbled on paper work to show me.

It was cute all things considered. It was a little cartoon styled roach. It looked a little lost and confused, but it held out its little roach like foot, and held the hand of a chibi sized Ghost. It was cute, and reminded me of Ghost's drawings in school.

Believe it or not, I once had Ghost entered into an art school. However, he missed his orientation and somehow found himself compelled to sign us both up for the military. Most people would have been angry, but I wasn't.

"It is nice. I like it." I said mesmerized by the picture, but he quickly pulled it away and looked at it.

"I've done better." I thought I heard him say, but he quickly turned back to the table and began doodling again.

MacTavish came back in with the new guy in tow. "This is Roach. Roach you know who this is- Ghost? Why are you sitting on him?"

Ghost looked up from his doodle for a split second, taking in his surroundings and then looking at Ryan. He hummed, and then looked back down at his picture.

"The target tried to escape. I subdued him without even using a fire arm. I thought you'd be proud." He said tapping his pen to his face.

MacTavish glared at him. "We said we wouldn't talk about the cupcake incident anymore."

Ghost shrugged, and began doodling once more. "You brought it up. Not me. I'm just doing my job."

MacTavish pinched the bridge of his nose, and began whispering repeatedly "If he wasn't the best member on your team, you could kill him."

Ghost seemed unfazed, and Wing's laughed at the display, which visibly made Ghost twitch.

MacTavish sighed and then turned to me. "Roach you and Wings will be rooming together. If the two of you can't stand each other by the end of the week then Wings can move to the east wing when they finish construction on it."

Ghost chuckled at this. "If they ever finish construction on it."

MacTavish twitched at him but chose to ignore him. "Is that fine?"

"I don't have a problem with it." I said gasping for breath, and Ghost took a little of his weight off of me. I mumbled a thanks.

Wings smiled at me, and reached out to shake my hand. I went to grab it, but as if on cue Ghost flung around and shoved his clip bored in my face again.

"You have a headset on now." Ghost said pointing to it with a grin, and I examined it rather closely.

"Wow. It looks perfect." I said trying my best not to get the wet ink on my nose.

Ghost looked up at Ryan as if finally noticing him. "Huh? Oh hi. I'm Ghost. This guy over here is Roach, but he likes to be called Carrot, because of his red hair. He gets mad when you don't."

Wings looked a little bit taken aback. "Oh really? Sorry about that Carrot."

MacTavish laughed at this, and I began hitting my head of Ghost's clip bored.

"I'll see you later for drinks. Alright, Carrot?" Ghost said taking his clip bored out of hitting range, and heading to the door. "Nice to meet you again… uh…?"

"Ryan." MacTavish said for him raising an eyebrow at him, grinning in spite of himself.

"Right. Ricky! See ya!" And with that Ghost exited the room leaving rather dramatically.

MacTavish chuckled as if he had remembered a funny joke before smiling at us. "Welcome to the Task Force Ryan."

Note:

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