Hey there guys!

I hope all of you are doing well! Also dare to hope that you enjoyed the last chapter!

BTW...Thanks to lhl2000 for the Fav on the Story 3

Colorful Memory

„He was a good boy today." Mila explained as she held the door open for Riley to rush into Hesh's room, even though his owner didn't acknowledge his canine nudging and pleading him for attention. Nothing was the same since that mission; Mila wondered if she made the right call when she didn't tell him what Logan has truly become. How could she ever anticipate the outcome of the mission. She should have known better. Riley keeps prancing around Hesh who set on the bed and pets his excited dog.
"Do you always do that…" Hesh picked up his voice but didn't have a look spared for Mila who sat down on a chair by the table, where the suitcase with the honey badger she had given David still rested. Mila didn't dare to interrupt him, she was glad he barely spoke at all.
"Keep your soldiers in the dark" He spoke in a cold almost dead tone. Nothing in his voice was left of the man (boy) she had hoped to recruit to finally bring Rorke down and in the process save Logan. As a commander she had to make a choice; and she made the choice to prioritize her Ghosts lives over Logan, since she had already lost too many of them to Rorke, even though the Ghost killer didn't know he was actually deactivation Ghosts one by one. In this very moment Rorke was planning his next and ever since Borneo they had revealed their existence to the Federation on a silver plate.

"I did no-" Mila's only objective now was damage control as far as Hesh's trust in her was concerned. She knew how much his opinion and decision to stay here would affect Keegan and Merrick. She flinched back at David's harsh glance; his green eyes had lost their spark which was replaced by a dull coat of sorrow. Even Riley stopped for a moment.
"Please…spare me from your lies." David turned his glance away and he seemed more depressed than angry in that moment. He played with a pair of dog tags in his hands; two pairs to be precise. One belonged to his father and the other to Logan. For a moment he stared at them before he laid his father's aside and broke Logan's apart.
"First my father,…now by little brother" Hesh clenched the dog tags tightly in his hands and Riley whimpers at him concerned.
"Rorke has taken everything from me!" David screamed out and held his head tightly as tears just busted down his cheeks uncontrollably. He wanted this monster to pay; with his death; slow and painful like he must have tortured Logan and take his dignity while doing so, like he did with his father.
"Come and see me if you want to sort this" Mila told him while her head hung low and she left the room silent. Using every second of herself closing the door, she had hoped David would call for her to stop, but it never happened.

Once the door was closed she remained frozen in her current position; hand fixed on the handle; eyes dropped to the floor and her red banks all over her face. She then noticed some people walking towards her and regained her typical leader posture. She made an effective but not too stern nod at the recruits passing her by. With quick steps she made her way back to her office; she was sure, if she got some work done, it would raise her mood.
"Mila!" She turned her attention away from the door to see Keegan approach her with a wave. The rather tall man stopped in front of her. Seeing his rather lean build body made her remember how well he was actually suited for stealth missions; he was man for the detail work, unlike Merrick.
"Oh, hey Keegan" She greeted him with a smile, not knowing what else to do. She unlocks the door to her office which for most looked more like a suite, but for Mila it was perfect. She had spent too many hours in this place. Hours she deeply regretted to have wasted on paperwork that was far from having to be due. Keegan carefully walked in behind her and closes the door.

"Are you satisfied with your quarters?" Mila asked while gesturing Keegan to sit down in the arm chair around a small coffee table while she did the same. She casually opened her navy blue blazer and then rested her arms on the arm rests as it was supposed to be. Keegan took a close look around the room before his glance landed on the pictures placed on the chimney across from him. Mila looked over her shoulder to see what he was staring at, though she knew who exactly he was looking for in the many pictures. His icy blue eyes stop instantly as he found what he was looking for; immediately a soft sparkle came over them almost seeming as if he was about to shed a tear.

"What do you think would she say?" Keegan shifted his gaze back to Mila who put her legs back to be crossed. She wore a skirt what made our automatically perform the motion. Her next move surprised Keegan as she flipped her high heels off her feet and took a breath of relief. Of course, Keegan, was referring to David's and Logan's mother, Mary. She couldn't help but think that her death at Rorke's hand changed something big inside Keegan. It had seemed to affect him much more than Elias; she couldn't really blame him for that, since he really did have a strong connection with her. Sometimes their relationship felt as if Keegan was Mary's substitute husband. They all shrugged it off as a platonic type of commitment but deep down everyone knew there was something more.

"That we haven't learned anything." Mila rubbed her face and then tried to have a subtle smile on her face as she remembers Mary scolding her for carrying her weapon around loaded and off-safety in base. It was a small detail, but it could have had huge consequences, much like she didn't find it necessary to tell David about Logan
"You knew, didn't you?" Mila raised an eyebrow at Keegan who slowly shifted in his seat. He looked down for a subtle moment.
"I had a feeling. They broke Rorke…and Logan was far from being has headstrong and experienced has he was when the Federation got hold of him." Keegan watched Mila narrow her eyes then swallow what she was about to say next. His curiosity got the best of him and he rose up from the seat to expect the picture gallery more closely. Mila's eyes followed him until she had to get up herself to further keep track of his actions.
"I didn't want to kick unnecessary dust up to have Hesh go more upset than he already was, but…I guess you managed that with a great expertise by leading him right into the lion's den…and it was a hungry one." Keegan took a small picture frame in his hands.

During the silence, he studied the picture; it showed a little girl wearing a simple white dress. Her blonde hair was all messy and her smile revealed that one of her front teeth was missing. The child seemed happy being all covered up in spots and sprinkles of paint. The cheeky girl even showed her paint stained hands to the camera.
"Oh!" Mila saw which picture Keegan had chosen and she had a chuckle dance over her lips while her cheeks appeared slightly rosy; those were clear indicators of joy. Keegan was justified to raise an eyebrow at the usually contained woman, who seemed now much more like her former self; emotional and impulsive.
"It was Cady's first birthday here with me…I had promised her we would paint her room in all colours of the rainbow." Mila chuckled again and rubbed her chin with her hand. "It…did get colourful…not as I had expected…but that's how life is" Mila smiled softly as she took the picture from Keegan in her own hand.
"You never where the family type…That's why I never saw us two dwell over old family photos" Keegan liked to know more about what Mila was up to over the past 23 years. Her smile faded as she put the picture back in its original spot right beside a small clay sculpture made by Cady in kinder garden. It looked as if it was depicting a lama or camel type of animal.
"The kids had to model an animal they had seen at the zoo." Mila explained and Keegan couldn't help but smile gently; it reminded him of the times he had spent time with Mary analysing and deciphering David's early artworks made of acrylic paint and finger prints. Mila kept her eyes fixed on the pictures but she narrowed them when the group photo of the surviving soldiers after mission "Sand Viper" caught her eye.

They all were a lot younger back then; everyone wore their military uniform with their respective rank displayed. All were lined up from tallest to smallest; Elias was the tallest while Mila herself marked the end, since she only stood at about 160 cm tall. None wanted to state it that day, but it was obvious that they went through literal hell and came back from it. Not a single pair of eyes dared to meet the lense of the camera; they all had done things they could never be proud of; gained experiences that should better be forgotten. Mila herself wouldn't have made it out if it hadn't been for Merrick. She will always be in his debt.
"Who are the parents…if you are not-"Keegan tried to bring Cady up again but Mila cut him off by casually shrugging it off.
"I never put much effort into finding them…Someone who abandoned their child." Mila's voice almost cracked and broke down at the end of her sentence. She turned away from the shelf rather quickly to cause Keegan to stop asking and hopefully make him understand her message.

"We got other issues to deal with…I guess" Keegan admitted silently followed by him turning to look out the window. It seemed almost alien to him; here everything was quiet and peaceful. Gunfire and explosions where nowhere to be heard. It being a dream was not an understatement. Was it wrong for him to think it was nice being here? Save? Far away from the war raging at their home.
"Any news on Rorke and Logan?" He shook his head in protest, ripping himself of this wrong sensation of peace and freedom. Meanwhile Mila had set down behind her desk. She scratched the back of her head.
"They sent us another message." She declared with a muffled voice. Behind her the screen came to show satellite pictures of a city; which looked to have been anywhere in the southern part of the states. Civilians and soldiers alike had been pinned to what used to be the town hall. It truly was a cruel picture and Keegan was surprised to find that he was shook to the core. The corpses hung out the windows like fresh washed laundry. Mila swallowed hard. Keegan still had to wonder if the act itself shocked him or that Rorke made Logan into a monster who could do things like this.
"They won't stop until they have what they want…Until all Ghosts are gone." Keegan came to realize that Rorke didn't care about the war or even the federation at all. All this mad man cared about was to have his sweet moment of revenge with everyone who 'abandoned' him. His gaze shifted consciously over to Mila who bit her lip. Was she contemplating if her decision to step in and expose her Ghosts to Rorke was the right choice? Was it the right choice to risk everything just to satisfy her own satisfaction?

"He forgot something though…" Mila's eyes went wide when she found Hesh stand in the doorway wearing one of the uniforms she had issued to him, but there was no time to admire how much this touched her. She had thought he would never ever come to term to what happened, but it seemed he was at least trying to accept things.
"We…are still here" Hesh carried on and Riley barked before prancing over to Mila to get a gentle belly scrub. David didn't have any glance spared for Mila though. She was just a thing he had to tolerate to reach his goal. This time his emotions won't get the best of him.

Oh Boy. I have a Feeling a big arguement is coming xD

Anyways...I hoped you enjoyed and please leave a Review, Fav or Follow (It really makes me happy and gives me fuel to write)

Pixeltrix141...out