I know, short chapter, long long long authors note at bottom. :-) Tissue warning!
The light of dawn crept through the curtains with a warm feeling to it. Roach was sitting stiff, a still guardian in a chair next to Alison's cot. He heard a slight stirring behind him, and looked up to Ghost's bunk. The man was waking, the grinning skull pulled down tight over his face. His ice blue eyes blinked open, and Roach smiled faintly. "Hey." He whispered. Ghost growled halfheartedly. "What is it, bug? Something wrong with Alison?" Roach nodded. "I guess you could say that. One of the guys got her some liquor instead of water. She got drunk, and then kind of passed out. I've been watching her the night to make sure she was okay." Ghost gave a gruff sound in response; one that Roach hoped was a positive one. Ghost slid down from the bunk, and walked over next to Roach. "Hey, what do you think about training in the pit later? I know, I shouldn't be asking, but Alison, if you need to stay with her today…" In Ghost asking this, Roach felt another pang of agony and misery come upon his heart in a torrent. "Ghost, thanks. Today is her last day." Roach felt the air in the room suddenly fill with a crackling stiff tension. "What?" Ghost asked, in a surprised voice. Roach nodded miserably in confirmation. "We are taking her in a helicopter to an airport tomorrow. If you want to come, I think she would like that. I just want her last day to be enjoyable." Ghost rolled back on his heels. "Shit. Really? When did you find out?" Roach swallowed, painfully recalling the conversation with MacTavish. "Yesterday. I'm not telling her until tonight. Please, don't tell anyone else though. I want her to be happy while she is with us for the last bit of time." Ghost nodded stiffly, and then went out of the room without another word.
Ghost had to try with all his might not to shut the door in frustration at the news. Alison would be leaving tomorrow, and he most likely would never see her again. He passed MacTavish's office, and his hand tentatively reached out to the handle as he neared it. Then, he drew back just before he touched it, as if it was searing hot. By the sound of rustling papers, the captain was in there, but Ghost didn't really want to talk to anyone. He exited the building and went over to the very edge of the camp, walking past the shooting range where he swore that blood still stained the ground, past the infirmary where weeks earlier Rook lay bleeding from a bullet wound, where many weeks earlier Alison lay like a crumpled rose. He walked up to the edge of the dull, steel, chain link fence. His thoughts were like storm clouds, but the low and dark ones, rather than the spiraling, black, maddening ones that had been in there the past month. His thoughts were now a sane man's thoughts, but they were still plagued. He linked his black gloved fingers between the links of the fence, peering out to the sun still low in the morning sky. Ghost felt like an animal. He was longing to break free of the fence, tear through the barbed wire, crush down anything in his way, rip off the chains of bondage that was any threat left in the world, anyone who could harm another child like Alison. Ghost fell to his knees, leaning up like a sick man against the fence. He moaned in agony, groaned in the pain of what he thought. What evil could possibly lead a man to massacre hundreds, millions, rob children of their parents, of parents of their children? Ghost squeezed his eyes tight, the thought of losing his own parents coming to him in a mad, rushing river. Ghost had gone about trying to stop these men for years, the ones that were murders with blood on their hands and ice and lead in their hearts, yet he had never really thought about it. He had never come face to face with someone who he had saved, given another chance. Now that he had, he didn't think he could let her go. His thoughts went back to their conversation over a month earlier. -"Well, that's sad. You deserve to be thanked. You shouldn't have to think that being gone unnoticed and not thanked is normal. You deserve better."- She had told him. He had replied icily. -"You really think that, kid? Well get with the program. Life isn't all sugar and rainbows. You do something, you don't get thanked, you count it as the norm. Life goes on."- Ghost thought to himself, suddenly, collapsed on the ground, she was partially right. Not that he deserves, or is entitled to thanks. But, having it was great. He knew that he couldn't abandon her, but had to give her away, for the sake of a better future for her. He shook in agony, misery, and thoughts. He only prayed that no one would notice.
Now, one of my reviewers, Nioba, I believe is the first person I have come across to state what we should all know, and some obviously don't- This is fiction, so anything can happen! (Direct quote, credit to Nioba.) Anyway, with the whole 'get 'er drunk' thing, that was a work of fiction. I have, as she (or he) guessed, I have never drank before. Ever. Not giving away my age or anything, but me drinking would be illegal, and I never plan to. So sorry if I got anything wrong for that part, or getting drunk. To my anonomous reviewer who was ever so kind to call my thing *creepy* for "A whole bunch of grown men trying to get a little girl drunk* two things. If you want to read creepy, check out edgar allen poe. I can list a whole bunch of his works from the top of my head, and now those are creepy, sick and twisted. And second of all, I am sure that Rook would never want to get her drunk. He probably was drunk himself and grabbed the wrong bottle. As for the part about Rocket, he is just plain flat out I got hit in the head with a mallet dumb. So, if you look at the word fanfiction, 7/10 of it is the word FICTION, so anyone who is tempted to flame for things being unrealistic, remember that! Thank you all, sorry this is so short! Not to mention, I am now taking requests for the following-
1-I want Archer, Roach, and Ghost all to give Alison a different token/trinket to remember her by when she leaves. Idea's welcome.
2-I want ideas for them to spend their last day together. Also open to anything reasonable! No, just as a spoiler for my head, she will not have a hangover : )
3-This story is wrapping up! I will take requests for a new story because I have nothing good in my head. I will do one shots (Humor, angst, etc.) on request, but I do not to slash nor bromance. Sorry to those of you who like it!
That's all, Dancing Tiger, out!