Brian Dies

Brian died because of a parachute malfunction.

Clay sat alone at the table in the mess hall, and that's all that ran through his mind. Brian died because of a parachute malfunction.

How ridiculous is that?

Clay remembers staring, looking at a man from the Green Team flailing and panicking as his chute tangled and choked off his landing. He looked on as each man unmasked themselves, and the one face he didn't see was Brian's.

Brian is dead. Probably a giant mess scattered across the field right now.

Clay.

All he can do is stare as he felt eyes on him as the rest of Green Team saw him stare on in shock at the death of his friend.

Clay. He hears his name being called.

All he can do is cry. On the inside that is. If he can't handle a friend dying during a training exercise, he would never make it to Bravo team where his friends could die from torture, an IED, drowning…a chute malfunc-

"Clay!"

He snapped out of it. He looked on through the mop of blonde hair blocking his vision and saw his absolute best friend in the world. No. He wasn't seeing visions of his dead friend Brian. It was Davis.

Lisa Davis. No one knew they were friends, and they planned to keep it that way. But when she heard about Brian, she chose her grieving friend over the potential consequences of people finding out. When it came time for her lunch, she went to find him, and with him being in the mess hall, she had to be careful about how she approached him.

When she saw the far-off look in his eye, she couldn't stop her feet from going to him. He was alone and his friend just died. The rest of Green Team had the nerve to leave him alone.

She called his name when she reached him, and he kept looking past her. She called his name again and again until he snapped out of it. The dull look in his eyes were replace with pure sadness. His shoulders slumped more and all he could do was stare at her with tears filling his eyes. She peered around the mess hall and noticed a group of men looking on at her. It was Bravo team.

Crap. Was all she could think about her team finding out she knew Clay.

That doesn't matter now. Her priority was getting Clay to a safe place to grieve so that no one could use this against him.

"Come on." She said with little emotion in her voice. He caught onto the fact that she was trying to ease him out of the mess hall as benignly as she could without attracting attention from more than just Bravo team.

She walked away before he could respond and he followed after her with his back straight. She led him to a conference turned storage room and locked the door behind them. She knew they would be safe here since it's on a slow part of base that only she really used for storing and organizing supplies from old missions.

Once the door was locked and the blinds were closed, she turned to him to find his back to her.

"Clay," she called his name softly and reached out to him. His breathing picked up, and his head bowed.

Moving so that she was standing in front of him, she gathered as much as she could of him in her arms and held him. His knees gave way and they both fell to the ground with his sobs shaking his entire body.

Brian was gone. Scattered across a field.

They wouldn't work together. They wouldn't have time together. They had nothing else together. Brain left him.

She moved around his spread legs and sat at his side and pulled his head to her chest.

He held on.

He let loose in her arms and she continued to hold him, rock him, and run her fingers through his hair. Resting her chin on top of his head, she hummed and just cradled his head against her chest as he cried.

"I've got you". She said and closed her eyes.