Disclaimer: Again, I don't own the characters… they are the product of Matthew Reilly's brilliant imagination.
Gant slumped down on her bunk, thoroughly exhausted. She was glad to have the rest, though she hated to admit it. Her wound still bothered her, but she felt like she was letting the rest of the team down by sitting out on the workout. She was angry with Schofield for humiliating her in front of the team, making her feel helpless and weak. Crossing her arms, she fumed silently in the empty room.
The door swung open about a half an hour later and the rest of the team, minus Shane Schofield, dragged themselves in. Gant sat straight up and pretended she had been stretching the whole time.
"Hey Fox. Whassup?" Rebound said sarcastically. Unfortunately, this led to echoes of 'Whassup!' imitations of the beer commercial. Hare finally had enough of it and got up to talk to the team's leader.
He approached the small office at the front of the building and saw Schofield sitting in a chair behind the desk with his hands covering his face.
"Sir?" Hare asked, entering the room. Schofield didn't reply. "Sir?" Still Nothing. "Lieutenant?" Schofield head snapped up and Hare grimaced. Schofield's eyes widened and he snatched up his sunglasses from the desk, hurriedly replacing them over his eyes.
"Yes, Hare?"
Hare stood stunned. He couldn't speak or react, all he could think about were Schofield's eyes.
Schofield shifted uneasily in his chair. Shit. He hadn't meant for anyone to see him without his sunglasses. "Corporal!" He said harshly, snapping Hare back to reality.
"Sir, this morning you said you didn't want another Wilkes." He hesitated, so Schofield pressed him.
"Yes… and?"
"Sooner or later you're going to have to tell us what happened down there."
"Am I? Why is that?"
Hare was slightly alarmed at the calmness in Schofield's voice. Just an hour earlier, he was barking orders. "Sir, I am an experienced soldier. I have seen, heard, smelt, felt everything and anything the Marines can throw at me. Even if you do not tell the others, please feel that you can confide in me. This incident at Wilkes has disturbed you, that much I can see. I've seen it happen before, sir. Soldiers see or hear something that changes them, yet they tell no one about it and eventually it drives them to madness, unable to shake the visions of the past. Please, sir, what happened at Wilkes?"
Schofield sighed, knowing what Hare said was true, because he had seen it happen. One of the men he had trained with overseas a long time ago had watched his own brother die during a raid. Everyone kept telling him to let it go because he could never bring his brother back. But the young man slowly went mad, torturing himself by replaying the bloody scene in his head again and again. Schofield remembered hearing the gunshot ring through the camp. At first, trainees thought it was a raid, but there were no follow-up gunshots. Eventually, someone found his body and the family was notified, just a few weeks after their first son's death, that their youngest son had died as well.
Schofield looked up at Hare and nodded to the chair opposite him. Hare sat down and Schofield began the story.
"About a month ago, my team was off Antarctica training in extreme conditions. A radio message we received informed us of a station not far from McMurdo that held a supposed spaceship. Needless to say, our superiors told us to go and confirm this information. Unfortunately, commandos from the French station, D'Urville, had also received the message and they attacked us. Many of my men were killed in that attack, but more died when the British decided to get in on the action and thundered in with hovercrafts. My depleted team killed them as well, but it turned out that two of the men under my command were working for another agency, the ICG, who wanted to kill us because we had knowledge of the 'spaceship'. I killed one of them, and an elephant seal killed the other just as he was about to shoot Fox. She barely escaped with her life. The USMC was told I was dead, but, luckily, we made it back in, well, close to one piece and that was corrected. I had a few broken ribs and Fox was in a coma from blood loss for a week." Schofield sighed, then put his head in his hands, exhausted. "That's basically the gist of what happened down there."
"Holy fuck." Hare said softly. Then there was a pause and he asked, "Why did you decide to stay in the Marines if this has bothered you so much?"
Schofield looked up, then pursed his lips in thought. "Well, I love it. This is the best job I've ever had." He grinned. "You know, before my time in the Air Force, I had a part-time job as a door-to-door salesmen? This is a million times better than that…" He paused. "This actually has helped, Hare. Thanks. I guess I just needed to explain it to someone who wasn't there."
There was a commotion outside and the two men stood up.
"Ruger!" Schofield snapped at a passing figure. It stopped and Curry stuck his head in the doorway.
"Yes, sir?"
"What the hell is going on?"
"We're having a race. Rebound and Hawk versus Princeton and Fox."
"I'm sorry, you're having a what?"
"Okay, first two runners at the starting line! Rules: No cheating and that means you Rebound!" Mother joked, "On your marks, get set… GO!"
Rebound and Princeton sprinted along a dark line that the others had somehow marked on the ground. Rebound was slightly ahead when they reached the end of the line and the other two runners: Hawk and Gant. Rebound tagged Hawk a few seconds before Princeton tagged Gant.
Schofield, Hare, Curry, Mother and Lowe watched as the two runners suddenly drew even, rapidly gaining speed.
Then Schofield saw Gant grab her side. He started for her just as she groaned and began to faint. He caught her just before she reached the ground. The other team members were rushing in their direction, the race forgotten.
"Get the smelling salts and an ice pack." Schofield barked, carrying Gant to her bunk. When he saw everyone just standing there, he yelled, "NOW!" That startled a flurry of action in the team.
"Princeton, you're the medic on the team. Get to work." He glanced at Gant again, the ordered the rest back outside for more training.
Gant slowly opened her eyes and saw Princeton and Schofield standing over her.
"Fox, can you hear me?" Princeton asked.
Gant nodded as she looked up at Schofield, feeling the guilt burn in the pit of her stomach. His eyebrows were curved in an angry expression and his mouth was a hard line.
"You fainted, Fox. But you'll be all right. It seems that you overdid it with this heat and your recent injury." Princeton smiled and patted Gant's shoulder. "Just get some rest and you'll be as good as new." She checked over Gant's vitals again, then left.
Gant gulped at the echo of the command Schofield had given only hours previous. He stared at her for a few moments, then turned away.
"Sir, I-" She stopped, then squeezed her eyes shut to urge herself to keep speaking. When she opened her eyes, Schofield was staring intently at her, waiting for her to continue. "Sir, I apologize for my behaviour earlier, I had no right to speak to you like that and I'm sorry."
She saw the corner of his mouth twitch.
"You had every right to say what you said, Fox. Just… try and get some sleep." He turned away again.
"But sir, I spoke disrespectfully to a superior officer and I disobeyed your command. Shouldn't I be reprimanded or something?" She watched as he turned back around, a painful expression on his face.
"Superior officer…" He mumbled softly to himself, then realized she was staring at him. "Punishment? No… you don't deserve any punishment. Since when does anyone get punished for telling the truth?"
"When their superiors refuse to accept the past." Gant said softly, almost too soft to hear. Almost.
Schofield sat down beside her on the small bunk. "This is about my eyes, isn't it?"
"I don't understand why you feel the need to hide them. Many other soldiers have distinguishing marks that they reveal publicly." Gant made sure not to use the word 'scar' or 'disfigurement'.
Schofield shook his head and closed his eyes. "No, you don't understand. The way people stare at you is completely different from the way they stare at me when I'm without my sunglasses. The stares you get are appraising while the stares I get show people's disgust and horror. The reason I wear my sunglasses is so that I don't have to go through that everyday. You say they're fine, but when you see my eyes, you wince. Everyone does. Then the room goes silent and no one has anything to talk about because they're thinking about my eyes and how NOT to bring them up in a conversation." He sighed, then continued, "Look, I remember when you saw them at Wilkes. When everyone saw them. All of you pretended you didn't notice, but I saw the flicker of horror and disgust. That's what I hide from. These sunglasses are my fucking saviour… I'm sorry, I didn't want to get into this with you, but…" He started to get up, angry with himself for revealing so many of his feelings about his scars.
Gant stopped him by putting a hand on his arm. She went out on a whim and took his sunglasses from him. He went to grab them back, but she quickly placed them over her own eyes. "Jeez, these are dark. How do you see with them on at night?"
He gave her an exasperated look. "Fox…"
"When I first saw your eyes, I admit I was shocked. I was not horrified. Believe me. I got interested on how you got the scars and asked Book. He told me everything. How you used to be in the Air Force and during a patrol over a no-fly zone, you were shot down. How they cut your eyes, locked you in a closet and left you there to die." Schofield was shocked at the tears that had started to form in her eyes. "Book told me that when he was sent in to rescue you, you were a mess and that after they fixed your eyes, you weren't allowed to fly again-"
"Okay, god, I remember!" He finally snapped. He closed his eyes briefly. "Worst time of my life and you had to remind me."
She looked stricken. "Oh god, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bring up any old memories, I just… wanted you to know that I don't care. Nobody on this team cares about your scars, okay? You are the best leader they've ever had, Shane. I mean, the sunglasses are your trademark, but…" She broke off when she heard him chuckle.
"I should probably let you sleep…" He looked hesitant to leave, so she sat up and gave him his glasses back.
"Just don't bump into anything. Those things are really dark."
He smiled and touched her cheek briefly. "I won't. I'll be careful, just as long as you are as well." He replied softly.
She nodded slowly before suddenly remembering that this was her senior officer. She straightened up and smiled quickly. "Sure, sir. I'll be ready to go in no time."
At the sudden change in her attitude, Schofield replaced the sunglasses over his eyes and stood up. "Uh… right. I'll go see what everyone else is doing."
He left the room in a daze, wondering what had just happened. The other team members had begun what looked like a fierce soccer game outside, but Schofield ignored them.
He diverted his mind from the conversation he had had with Gant and focused on the information Lowe had given him earlier about the Constitution's demise. Two diving teams went down, but never returned and there was a team of missing scientists. It's starting to sound like Wilkes all over again. Schofield thought miserably. He knew the thing that had sped towards the boat before the explosion was most likely a torpedo, but after Wilkes, Schofield wasn't sure about anything anymore.
