Hello, everyone!
Thank you so much for your reviews :-) And happy to welcome new readers!
Bella knows how to get in trouble.
But she finally got to see Edward. It wasn't a very pleasant encounter, though. I don't think you will like Edward in this chapter :-)
When Bella saw the man coming out of the office, she froze in surprise.
It was him. The same young officer with the extraordinary eyes whose portrait had been the first she'd seen in Parris Island. Only now his green eyes, with a golden crown around the pupil, looked dull and tired, and his cheeks were three days' worth of stubble, like Charlie's when he was too lazy to shave.
Bella stopped crying in surprise and only came out of her stupor when Lieutenant Cullen asked a handsome, middle-aged man in a white robe standing nearby:
"Why all the girls stare at me like I'm a pop star?"
"Since your portrait put up in reception," Captain Cullen grinned and looked at Bella. - "Recruit... Swan, right? - he glanced at her last name on the uniform. - Are you here to see me on some business?"
Bella was so confused, that she only sobbed and squeaked her eyes, and Lieutenant Cullen said with irony:
"Apparently, Recruit Swan had just been in the hardest battle, lost all her comrades and was seriously wounded, judging by the state of her uniform, her hysterical sobs and the fact that she was unable to answer the officer's question."
Bella's cheeks immediately lit up and she jumped to her feet to rehabilitate herself, but her right knee pierced with such a sharp pain that Bella slid back onto the couch.
At that moment Sergeant Young returned, and when she saw the Cullens, she turned to Bella and exclaimed:
"Swan, wipe that snot off! You just twisted your ankle, not stepped on a land mine!"
"What happened, Sergeant Young?" - Captain Cullen asked.
"Recruit Swan fell while jogging and is now playing the wounded hero," said Two-Face.
"I propose to award Recruit Swan the Purple Heart," smirked Lieutenant Cullen, rubbing his overgrown chin.
Bella desperately restrained herself from sniffling her nose, but instead her nose suddenly made a sound very similar to a horse's snore. She immediately felt like falling through the ground, and Lieutenant Cullen said:
"I don't concerned about the future of the Marine Corps. We're raising a good replacement, D.I."
Sgt. Young gritted her teeth, and Captain Cullen said:
"I've sent almost all the personnel out for training, Sergeant, so I'm going to shake off the old days and examine the Swan recruit myself. Wait here."
"Yes, sir," Two-Face replied and called for Zafrina to come in. - "Noboa, take Swan's recruit where Captain Cullen will say."
"Let's see what's wrong with your leg, recruit Swan," Captain Cullen said as he helped Bella remove his pants.
His eyes, too, with the same unusual irises as his son's, were filled with irony. But there was no sneer or contempt for her weakness in them, so Bella calmed down a little.
"How did you fall? By yourself? Or did someone hit you?" - asked the captain.
"Myself," Bella lied. She didn't want to get into a fight, to find someone to blame. Especially since neither Heidi nor Victoria would admit to anything, and Bella had no proof except her own words. And it's not customary for Marines to complain about each other. After that, no one here will respect her.
"I'm not asking this to send someone to the brig, even if I should, but to establish the mechanism of injury," Captain Cullen explained.
Bella hesitated, but answered nonetheless:
"Hit, sir. From behind. Under the knee."
"Ok," said the captain. - "Nothing's changed at the depot since it was founded. That's what time-honored tradition means!"
He gently felt Bella's already badly swollen knee. Swan twitched at every touch.
"Relax, recruit Swan. Amputation is not a threat to you in any case," smiled the captain. - "I'll be right back. Don't try to get up."
Bella laid her head on the pillow and sighed heavily. She couldn't forget the snide look in Lieutenant Cullen's beautiful green eyes. Bella Swan showed herself to him as a complete idiot. A loser. What a loser she is.
"Wonderful recruits you have, D.I.," Bella suddenly heard Lieutenant Cullen's voice. - "What the hell makes them to join the Corps?"
Unaware of where the voice was coming from, Bella turned her head and saw a vent under the ceiling. Apparently, because of some construction irregularities, she could hear everything that was being said in the next room.
"She's only been here a few days, sir," Sergeant Young said. - "She hasn't had time to adjust yet."
Bella froze in amazement. Two-Face is protecting her?
"Adjust? To what? To the fact that you can twist your ankle while jogging?" - Cullen said mockingly. - "If you're going in the Marines, you have to be willing to take the pain. I'll wager this recruit won't make it to the final trials."
"Can you bet, sir?" - Two-Face sniggered. - "Let's make that bet."
"Come on, Sergeant," Cullen suddenly picked up on the idea. - "I'll bet you a hundred bucks that recruit Swan would leave with his tail between his legs. Seven years in the Marine Corps, I can tell at a glance if a man is fit to be a Marine or not. That girl's got "secretary" written all over her face."
"I'll bet you a thousand bucks I can make a Marine out of her," Sergeant Young said with determination.
"A thousand bucks? Wouldn't it be a pity to lose that much over a girl?"
"Not a pity. I got a lot for my ten splinters, and Uncle Sam didn't hurt me here," said Two-Face. - I believe a man can do anything. Everyone just needs an personal incentive.
"I thought drill instructors only knew how to swear. It's almost a campaign speech, Sergeant," Cullen laughed. - "Well, I don't spare a thousand bucks for the truth, either. How long until the end of the training?"
"Eleven weeks," Two-Face replied.
"Damn it. I'll be scaring up malarial mosquitoes up near Kabul by then. But I'll be watching this baby's progress," Cullen said with sarcasm. - "Save your money, D.I. In six months I'll come back for it."
Bella listened to their conversation, and instead of despair, she suddenly felt anger. Anger at herself for whining and weakness. And on Lieutenant Cullen for the fact that in just one minute he had already relegated her to the meaningless office plankton.
What did he even know about her?
If she really was the amoeba he thought she was, she wouldn't have been able to come up with and execute a plan to rescue Renee from the hands of a deranged Riley Beers. All these experienced military men stood around waiting for someone to save them. And it was she, Bella Swan, who saved them all. And in that moment, she didn't feel like a jerk at all.
Lieutenant Cullen's arrogance and sneering tone made Bella so angry that she sat down on the couch and, clenching her fists, said:
"You're not getting that thousand bucks, Lieutenant Cullen! No way!"
"Are you talking to yourself, Recruit Swan?" - grinned entered Captain Cullen.
"No, sir. Just cheering myself up with cadences," said Bella, shaking with resentment.
"I see you're not dying anymore, Recruit Swan," smiled the doctor. - "That's good. Because you will stay with me for at least twenty-four hours, and now you will have to bear one procedure."
"What's that, sir? - Bella was worried. - Surgery?
"No. We're not talking about surgery yet. We must first remove the blood from the joint cavity so that we can make a proper diagnosis," answered Captain Cullen.
"Blood?" - Bella had goose bumps running down her back. - "Do I have a fracture?"
"I said, the hemarthrosis makes it very difficult to diagnose right now. But I don't think it's a fracture. More like a partial tear of the ligaments," Captain Cullen said. - "In any case, I'll tell your drill instructor that you're off physical activity for at least a couple of weeks."
Bella realized that this greatly increased Lieutenant Cullen's chances of winning the argument, and immediately imagined how angry Two-Face would be at her for this ridiculous injury.
But all her assumptions on the subject were nowhere near reality. Because as soon as Captain Cullen told Sergeant Young that Bella wouldn't be able to do physical training for a few more weeks, Two-Face started screaming so hard that the scars on her face turned crimson.
"Watch your step, Swan!" - She yelled. - "How are you gonna catch up with the rest of the platoon? Even those losers in the special platoon will be better prepared than you!"
"I'll attend every lecture, ma'am," Bella interjected.
"Did I give you permission to open your mouth, Recruit Swan?" - Sergeant Young yelled in her face.
"No, ma'am," Bella lowered her eyes.
"Look in front of you when your sergeant is talking to you!" - demanded the drill instructor. - "Lectures? What are you, in a fucking college? Are you going to lecture the Taliban or Iraqi insurgents too? Or did you come to the Marines to shake your tits and sit at a table in a nice uniform and fuck tough-ass guys, and let the others fight? Answer me, Recruit Swan, why did you join the Corps?"
Bella didn't want to answer that question more than anything else in the world. But it was impossible to ignore the sergeant's orders, so Bella spoke up:
"To serve my country, ma'am, and to fight terrorism."
"Bullshit," Sergeant Young grimaced. - "It's written all over your face that you're lying! And don't you dare read me recruiting brochure now. I know it by heart."
"I've always been the gray mouse. No one ever noticed me in school. And now my parents are getting a divorce and dividing me like property," Bella told the truth. - "Nobody cares about me. I'm sick of it, ma'am. I'm sick of being nothing."
"Tired of being seen as nothing?" - The sergeant sniggered.
"Yes, ma'am," Bella confirmed. - "My parents don't care what I want."
"What do you want?" - Two-Face asked. - "To stop being nothing? If you keep acting the way you're acting now, you still are. The uniform doesn't change a man. You were a gray mouse and now you're a spotted mouse, but you're still a mouse!"
"But I'm trying, ma'am," Bella objected, hurt by drill instructors's words.
"No, Swan, you're not. Because you don't care about the Marines, you don't care about your comrades, and you don't care about your country, either!" - Sergeant Young spat angrily in Bella's face. - "You think just about is your ass. As long as you don't give a shit about anyone, no one will give a shit about you. I ain't got nothing to respect you for yet, and neither do the other recruits. Prove that you can have a comrade's back, overcome fear and pain, and defeat the enemy. And you'll get out of the shit you're floundering in."
Bella felt the heat rush to her face. It was the most unpleasant thing anyone had ever said to her. But even though it hurt and hurt her to hear it, she knew with annoyance that Sergeant Young was right.
"You'll work to the bone these two weeks, Swan!" - Two-Face, meanwhile, continued. - "While everybody watches TV and writes letters in their spare time, you'll do push-ups, run, squat, and crawl. No one will feel sorry for you. Get used to it."
"Aye, aye, ma'am!" shouted Bella, and Sergeant Young left the room.
Bella lay down on the couch and rested her face on a pillow that smelled of medicine, and then she saw a nurse walk up to her bed with a syringe and some instruments in her hands.
"Captain Cullen said you needed to have the blood removed from your knee cavity," the nurse said. She was very small and thin, with short, slightly disheveled dark hair. - "I'm Hospital Corpsman First Class Alice Brandon. But you can just call me Alice. What's your name?"
"Bella," Bella answered. Alice seemed very nice to her.
"Bella, this is going to be a little uncomfortable, but you'll have to be patient," Alice said, preparing Bella's knee for the procedure. - "If it hurts too much, tell me."
Alice talked to Bella the whole time she was doing her job. Apparently she did this to distract her patient from her discomfort, and she really succeeded.
Alice seemed to know everything about everyone who served at Parris Island, and she was happy to share her knowledge.
"Who's your senior drill instructor?" - Alice asked.
"Sergeant Emily Young," answered Bella.
"Lucky you," Alice said in surprise. - "She's a good one. She'll tear anyone up for her recruits, and she doesn't care what their rank is."
Bella was surprised by that characterization, and Alice laughed at her surprise:
"She screams at the top of her lungs, of course. But all the drill instructors here yell. So they're getting their recruits ready for combat. Sergeant Young didn't know how to yell at recruits at first, she's very calm indeed. But then she realized that recruits don't understand otherwise, and now yells like Jimmy Hendrix!"
Bella remembered that Sergeant Young had actually spoken to Lieutenant Cullen in a calm and composed manner, and her curiosity was immediately piqued:
"Alice, do you know Lieutenant Cullen?"
"The captain's son?" - Alice laughed and looked at Bella sympathetically. - "Has he gotten to you yet, too? Don't think about it. He picks on all the female Marines. It's because of his wife."
"Because of his wife?" - Bella was surprised. Somehow, she didn't even think the lieutenant could be married. Though that wasn't surprising - he was, after all, five years older than Bella.
"Oh, it's such a story! A real Shakespearean tragedy!" - Alice became even more animated. - "Lieutenant Cullen got married right after he graduated from Annapolis. The captain talked him out of it, but he rebelled. He fell head over heels in love. His wife became pregnant immediately. And one year later he went to serve in Afghanistan," - Corpsman Brandon readily told not remember to deftly and almost painlessly manipulate Bella's knee. - "A few months later their convoy was attacked by the Taliban. Lots were wounded, five dead. Cullen was badly wounded. When he ran out of ammo, he fought the Taliban hand-to-hand. They gave him the Navy Cross for that. But that's not the point. Anyway, he got out of the hospital and went home. He decided to surprise his wife. He arrives in the dress uniform, with flowers, enters the house, and she is in their bed with some other guy. And that's when he went nuts. He almost drowned the guy in the pool. His wife called the police. And then she sued him. Allegedly, he threatened to kill her. He wouldn't lay a finger on her. The court divorced them and forbade him to go near her. She hasn't let him see her daughter since it happens. He's only seen Carly 10 times in two years."
"Why does that make him hate female Marines? Or does he just hate all women?" - Bella asked, shocked by the story of the heroic lieutenant's failed marriage.
"Because his ex-wife is a Marine, too. They were in the same course at Annapolis. And now he's convinced that all women join the Marines just to find a husband and then cheat on him," Alice sighed. - "By the way, I heard that his ex is going to marry the same lover who turned out to be some arms magnate, and is going with him to Italy with his daughter."
"Corpsman Brandon, have you told all the local gossip to Recruit Swan, or should I come back later?" - Captain Cullen inquired from the threshold.
"That's all, sir," Alice didn't seem the least bit embarrassed, and jumped up from her chair. - "I'm done, Bella. Did it hurt?"
"Just a little," Bella smiled.
"You're dismissed, Alice," Captain Cullen said.
"Thank you, sir. You will come to my party, won't you?" - Alice laughed like a bell.
"Of course I will. I'll bring my guitar. I'll sing songs about Vietnam," said Captain Cullen with a serious face, but his eyes were smiling.
"That's great! And we'll also have a twister!" - said Brendon, the orderly, cheerfully. - "Good luck, Bella! Get well!"
Alice Brandon ran off, humming something and even bouncing a little, and Captain Cullen explained:
"It's just the two of us on duty here tonight because the others are preparing a party for corpsman Brandon. She's off to Quantico tomorrow for Afghan training and then she's going to serve in Afghanistan. Well, Recruit Swan, it didn't turn out so bad, did it?" - he smiled warmly.
"Yes, sir," Bella nodded, and for the first time in all her time at Parris Island, she suddenly felt that she would be able to settle down here after all.