Chapter 7:

My body crouched lowly in the corner by the door of the Hawaii Five-O station. I could feel my knees digging into my chest as I played with the fringes of my jeans. The pressure around my legs slowly shifted down to the balls of my feet as I eased forward slightly and then rocked back. As I came to a stop, my back crunched against the wall behind me, and pushing off of it I repeated the motion again.

"Reer?"

I looked up abruptly and noticed the Commander I stood quickly, positioning myself rigidly to look at him. "Yes, sir?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Sir?"

The commander sighed as he took in my position, and I could see that he wasn't quite awake yet. His eyes were weighed down by the dark circles underneath them, and the slight rugged shadowing from his unshaven face, made it look like he hadn't been sleeping for weeks. His body softly crumpled over as his shoulder's sagged, and the bag around his shoulder's slipped to the floor. Roughly, his hands began to move, digging into his pant pockets and pulling out the keys to the door. Quickly it flung open, and he held it open for me as I gathered up my bag and stepped through.

"I meant at this time." He finally clarified as I walked over to my desk and delicately leaned my backpack against it. Seeing one of the pencils out of place, having been moved over night by the wind or maybe I hadn't placed it correctly when I had left, I re-positioned it until the tip formed a parallel line with the papers on my desk.

"Time, sir?"

"Nobody else comes here this early. – How long were you out there?"

"Not very long, sir."

The conversation dropped with my clipped reply as I began to reorganize the things along my desk; pencils had been precariously placed the night before, and I resorted them until they were lined up, along the bottom of my desk draw, and the papers that Danny had dropped last night before he left were filed away in the filing cabinet behind me. I looked up startled as the commander's arm appeared in my vision, slowly waving a cup of coffee in my face. Slowly I accepted it as found alphabetically sorted some more papers so that they would fit into a folder.

A shadow began to hang over me as I glanced quickly to my side to find the commander was still there, half-sitting on top of an unoccupied area of my desk. Setting the cup down for another moment, I pasted a labeled sticker on the folder and then walked away from the desk in order to place it into the filing cabinet.

"Where were you?"

"Excuse me… sir?"

"What corps? Navy, Marines, Army, Air Force? Which one?" He questioned, as I settled back into my seat and took in the dust free desk. I knew that eventually he would ask me this question; it was inevitable specifically because my body was still programmed like it had been in the Army. Anybody who knew a soldier knew how another acted; and I was asking like the stereotype.

"Army, sir." Besides, adding sir to the end of every sentence when addressing someone of superior status often leads to people making that connection.

"Regiment?"

My mouth opened to answer his question, but the back of my throat lumped up and I found myself gathering up the cup of coffee. Carefully I considered my answer as I took a few small sips and then as I brought down the cup from my face, I heard him sigh. Looking up I was shock to see his almost sympathetic smile, but everything I needed was evident in his eyes.

"Classified… Look, Reer, I don't know what happened or why you're currently not with the Army – Just try to loosen up a bit. It's going to be tough on you if you don't try to fit in with the rest of the team… And as you can very well see, they're not the military – and they're not used to that type of formality." He broke off and tried to catch my eye, but I determinedly stayed away from his view, choosing to focus on the flying bits of dust that were floating before me. "Just wanted you to know that whatever going on in your head right now – Soldier to Soldier, you understand?"

"Of course, sir."

"I won't bring it up again… but I can't guarantee that the others guys won't. I know that they already know."

"A chick? Honestly a girl to join the squads!" Chris voice broke through the night as I stared back at the major.

"You're names been posted already." The major merely continued to stare back at me, almost as if he was seeing through me, and slowly I could feel my eyes hardening to protect myself from his watchful eyes. "Chris, quiet down. Don't wake up the whole barrack. – And what do you have against girls all of a sudden… Lily's been with us for a while. I don't remember you complaining then."

"That's because nurse chick got herself a decent job. She don't see combat like the rest of us… She's a real asset because she fixes us up. – What can this chick do? Look at her major, because she got this scrawny scared look about her."

"Stop having a cow Chris." A soothing feminine voice entered the fray, following shortly by a well-known deep chuckle.

"Aaron?"

"Sup superwoman! How's it goin'?" His widely cackling voice broke through the almost silent night. "Is Chrissy giving you a hard time? Want me to take care of him for you?"

"Like you could, pretty-boy!" Christ snapped back.

"Alright. That's enough from you boys… I said, quiet." Major Roberts finally pulled rank and order as the boys quickly shut their mouths. The major's smile returned as he looked back at me.

"Shay's going to join. Nobody has the right to argue against that order." Chris looked ready to protest before the major shot his a stern look, "Besides… I think she's cute."

"What?" I finally blubbered as the words finally escaped the major's mouth. Chris' frown was permanently etched in his face and I could hear Lily and Aaron's laughs being to lighten up the air. Major Roberts smiled as he walked up to me and began to rub my head like I was a Buddha and, as he took his hand away I could feel the soft sensation of his hand still coursing over my head.

"You're cute! You remind me of my wife… what, with those big round eyes of yours. I can't wait to see what type of man you end up with. – He'll be mighty glad he got such a stunner like you." The major elaborated as he patted me cheek once more before walking back over to Lily, who was nodding her head in agreement with his statements.

The door opened up and in walked the laughing group of Kono, Danny and Chin, all talking about their late nights and their early mornings. The Commander's presence had long disappeared from around my desk; the memories had also disappeared, having chosen to fall back into the dark cells that were usually captured in. Though, my head still burned from the way Major Roberts had rubbed my head that one evening. Fumbling to act like I hadn't been spacing out, I opted to walking my cup back to the sink, where I washed it and placed it on the drying rack.

"Morning Reer. How was your night?" Danny asked as I walked up behind me and began to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"Fine, s—Danny." I could feel his powerful smile as he noticed my use of his name, and then he walked back to his desk to proceed with whatever ritual he had.

Walking back to my desk I could feel the commander's eyes floating across my figure, just as Major Roberts' had many years ago in that line up. Trying my best to ignore it, I settled myself into my seat before I quickly took out the laptop that I had stowed in the bottom of my bag when I had that nightmare invested base of mine. I spaced out, only half-taking in the black screen as it turned on, and then the bright lights began to flash. Logging in, I was greeted by several notifications of updates that had occurred during my period of absence from the use of the computer. Everything had been wiped, my background was bare and there were no existing folders on the desktop; everything had been wiped, so that I wouldn't have to remember any of it.