A/N: Hey guys! Sooo, who thinks Roach should have nightmares and flashbacks? *Everyone raises their hands* Okay! Roach is gonna have nightmares and flashbacks! Yay! This is gonna be fun.
Roach slept peacefully in the infirmary, until the nightmares came...
"It was all your fault!" John yelled.
Gary just sat there crying, not knowing what else to do. John kept blaming him for Alyss's death. He had tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault but that just made him angrier. John started drinking on the same day Alyss died. He was always angry.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! You killed your mother!"
"No I didn't!" He yelled back, only to have a beer bottle thrown at him.
It shattered on the wall beside him and he felt several shards of glass dig into his leg. He fell down and John kicked him in the ribs before continuing to yell at him.
"You are a horrible kid!"
He cried harder, knowing there was nothing else he could do. John yelled and screamed at him for nearly another hour before passing out on the couch. He slowly got up and winced as it hurt his leg. He went to the bathroom and found some tweezers. He took a deep breath. Then with shaking hands, he started pulling the glass pieces out.
It took him about fifty minutes to get every single piece of glass out, clean all the cuts, and stitch up the ones that needed it.
He hated his life.
He woke up and sat there for a while, crying but keeping himself quiet so no one would come in and check on him. The last thing he needed was them knowing that he still had nightmares and asking a whole bunch of questions. He didn't get any sleep for the rest of the night...
The next morning...
"Good morning, Roach." Ghost said as he walked in.
"Morning." He said, trying to hide a yawn.
Ghost stopped and looked at him. There were dark circles under his eyes. And he was very unsuccessful at hiding that yawn.
Damn it. He probably didn't get any sleep last night.
"Did you sleep well?" He asked, closely watching him to try and see if he was going to lie.
"Yeah, where's everyone else?" He asked, changing the subject.
Yeah, my ass. He really didn't get any sleep.
"They're either hanging out with the Ghosts or eating breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, you need to eat." He said, heading for the door.
"Wait, Ghost!"
He looked back at him over his shoulder.
"What?"
"I'm not hungry."
"Yes you are and you're gonna eat." He said, leaving the room and ending the conversation.
Ghost sighed as he walked through the halls that lead to the cafeteria. They tried to get Roach to eat something yesterday, but he wouldn't. Today he was determined to get him to eat something. Deep in thought as he was, he almost walked right into Hesh and Logan. They were walking around with Riley.
"Oh, hey Ghost. What are you up to?"
"I was just getting Roach something to eat, but he probably won't eat anything, though."
"Is he doing any better?" Hesh asked.
"He hasn't torn any stitches yet, usually by now he would have. He didn't get any sleep last night though."
"Nightmares?"
He nodded.
"Anyways, I gotta hurry and get him some food. You guys wanna come with?"
"Sure." Logan said.
They got him some food and went back to the infirmary. Roach immediately tensed up when he saw two people he didn't know... and a dog.
"Relax, Roach. This is Hesh, Logan, and Riley." Ghost said, gesturing to each one of them.
"... Hi..." Roach said. He was shy around new people, but when he got used to them he was fine.
They stepped forward and he shook both of their hands.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Roach." Logan said.
"Same to you. How have you guys been?"
"Busy, but good, the usual." Hesh said with a smile.
Damn, the poor kid really didn't get any sleep last night. He thought, looking at his eyes.
"Here Roach," Ghost said, setting a tray of food on the table to his left.
He made a face as his stomach churned uncomfortably at the smell of food.
"I already told you I'm not hungry." He sighed.
"Well, that's too bad because I'm gonna bug you until you eat something."
"Have fun growing old while you're waiting." He deadpanned.
Logan and Hesh giggled, but tried to keep quiet so Ghost wouldn't get mad. Ghost glared at them and turned back to Roach.
"If you don't eat, I'm gonna force feed you."
"If you try to force feed me, I'm gonna bite your bloody arm off!" Roach laughed as Ghost made a face.
"You're gonna do WHAT?!"
Hesh and Logan burst out laughing just as everyone else walked in. Roach didn't know about half of them.
"What's so funny?" Archer asked, which only made them laugh harder.
Roach had to stop laughing because of his ribs. He looked at all the people.
"So... umm... who are all these people?" He asked, fidgeting uneasily.
"Oh, sorry Roach. I keep forgetting that you haven't met them yet. That's Merrick, Keegan, and Kick, it looks like you've already met Hesh, Logan, and Riley." Price said.
They stepped forward and he shook their hands as well. It was a bit awkward as he had to shake with his left hand because his right was broken.
"Hey, I forgot to ask you if you were okay with dogs, but you look like you don't mind them." Toad said.
"I like dogs when they aren't trying to kill me." He grinned.
"Did you sleep last night?" Archer asked, looking at his eyes.
"Nope."
"Hey! You told me you did!" Ghost said indignantly.
Roach shrugged.
"I've decided that I'm not going to try to lie when there's proof that I'm lying right on my face, it's kinda pointless."
"Your kid is very confusing, Price." Merrick said.
"I know! Sometimes he says really crazy things. And most of the time you can't tell if he's lying, but he always knows when everyone else is lying!" MacTavish said.
"And he's also sitting right here, so you might want to stop talking about him before he decides to bitch slap you." Roach said with a completely straight face.
Everyone started laughing.
"That's no way to speak to your Captain!" MacTavish said, still smiling.
"Well that's no way to talk about your Sergeant!" Roach said, imitating MacTavish's voice perfectly.
"Woah! How the hell did he do that?!" Kick asked.
Roach looked over at him.
"Talk for a minute or two."
"Why?"
"Just do it."
For the next minute or so, Kick said random things and Roach listened closely to the sound of his voice.
"Okay, I think I've got it."
"Got what?" Kick asked, clearly confused.
"Got the sound of your voice." Roach said, now imitating Kick.
Kick's mouth fell open and he looked at Roach like he was the coolest person he had ever met. Everyone laughed at the look on his face.
"That's awesome."
"Why didn't you get any sleep?" Toad asked curiously.
"Oh, I think I got plenty, thanks to Archer." He said shooting him a glare.
"What? I didn't do anything!" Archer said as he got about five times paler then he was a moment ago.
"I hope you know you're a terrible liar."
"Okay, what did I do then?"
"Why don't you tell me?"
"Don't play head games with me!"
"Why not? You seem to enjoy playing games with me, you're just mad because I know which game I'm playing."
"Roach, leave Archer be. He was just trying to help." Toad said.
"There is no 'help' for my situation, okay?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means exactly what it sounds like."
"There's a solution to everything, you just have to find it."
"You're very optimistic."
"And you're not?"
"If you knew anything about me, then you would understand why I'm not an optimistic person."
They went silent. It was true, they knew hardly anything about Roach. He was the big mystery in the Task Force.
That night Roach lay awake in his bed, just waiting for the nightmares to come. He didn't get any sleep that night either.