Attack

Right here we go another chapter fresh out of the stove pipe, hopefully it is well received, I would like to know how you think I am doing with this little story line I have concocted, I hope I've been doing it in good taste I know I am adding to what seems to be a touchy subject in any military story but I hope I'm not just brushing it off as if it's nothing. Anyway I have pretty much finished my tango with zirconium-89 now then its onto revising for my first semester finals in January but I will try and get something done for this story too. Anyhow, let's get on with the good stuff shall we? As always I don't own COD but I do own Anchor.

"Well you look like a man who's been condemned to death," The Corporal told me as I wandered into the NCO mess.

"Yeah you do look like shit mate," Wozzo Pitchings told me as I slummed down in a chair.

"Aye, you could say that," I nodded to Pitchings as I just stared into a corner of the room.

"Here," The Corporal said as he passed me a glass of clear liquid which I assumed to be water.

I took a sip of the liquid and immediately started choking, "What the hell was that?" I asked him as I sat up.

"Premium vodka," He smiled as I finished the glass.

"Ah that makes more sense now," I laughed and stood up.

"So what's up?" The Wozzo said as he blocked the doorway.

"Nothing I'll be fine," I said to him as I tried to exit.

"Right that's a load of bullshit," He said as he pushed me back on my arse into the chair I had been sat on, "If you can't tell us what the fucks up then those guys out there are going to grill your arse."

"He's got a point," The Corporal said as he stood over me.

"Okay the girl I've been seeing might be pregnant," I sighed as I slumped down in the chair.

"Fucking hell mate you work quickly, you've only known her what six months?" He asked.

"Nah four, mate," I looked up at him.

"Nice!" The Corporal said excitedly as he went to give me a high five.

"We're not your enemies mate, we won't judge you," Wozzo laughed as I was helped to my feet.

I stumbled as I regained my footing and it took me a few minutes to see straight, "Thanks lads, now let's get to these boys and make some men."

My two month break had been bearing down on me like a freight train.

When the time finally came I made my way straight back to Staffordshire to see Ashley who was gearing up for her final test with the doctors, I was sat outside in the waiting room while she was in having her test.

It took about twenty minutes for her to exit the room she just had a piece of paper and a blank expression on her face.

"So how'd it go?" I asked her as she just fell on me which gave me my answer.

"Well it's been confirmed," She sighed.

"You're pregnant," I said calmly as she buried her head into my chest.

"Yeah," She curled up in my chest and started to weep.

"Hey, let's get back to yours," I said to her as I held her hand and lead her way into the snatch land rover I had been leased by the base.

We sat in silence as we made our way towards her house where Bailey had already put the kettle on. We walked in and she left us to it in the living room, I sat down next to Ashley on the sofa she was cradling a hot cup of tea trying to keep herself together.

"How is this going to work?" She asked me as I attempted to put my hand on her knee but she just swiped it aside.

"I don't know," I sighed as I looked over to her but she was fixated in the cup.

"That's the point, I don't think we can do this," She spat as she started to sob.

"We can do this," I told her as I leant across the sofa towards her.

"No, we can't you're going to be away in the marines all the time and I won't be able to afford to keep working at the hospital and look after a child," She replied her tears were dropping into her tea which had now stopped steaming.

"I can get time off you know," I said to her whilst pulling her towards me.

"Yeah but not for long enough," she wept as she curled up on my chest still crying.

"We'll figure something out," I whispered to her as she tightened herself up in my arms.

She continued sinking in my chest until she was laid across my lap, "I'm so scared," she shook as I placed my hand across her shoulders and grasped the back of her shirt.

"I know baby," I paused for a second before whispering, "So am I."

We sat on the couch for about an hour just in silence before Bailey came in on us.

"I thought you two could need this," Bailey said as she handed me a large bar of chocolate.

"Thanks, Bailey," I said to her as I kept rubbing Ashley's back.

"No problem you two look like you need it," She smiled as I looked down at Ashley.

Ashley eventually stirred and lifted herself up keeping her head on my shoulder, "I'm really not that hungry," She said quietly as she looked down at the chocolate bar that I held in my hands.

"Come on, you have to eat at some point," I said to her as I peeled the foil off the back of the bar exposing the brown chocolate inside. I then snapped off a piece and offered it to Ashley, who looked at it for a few seconds before she succumbed to the chocolate.

"Bailey, you got Milka?" She asked with a rather excited tone.

"I know it's your favourite," Bailey smiled as she nicked a piece for herself, "Plus after your day I thought you might need it."

"Yeah I think I do."

"So, what you two going to do?" She then asked looking me straight in the eyes, in an almost glaring fashion.

"We dunno just yet," I looked back at her putting my hand on Ashley's thigh.

"You gonna move in together?" She then asked.

"We haven't decided on anything yet," Ashley added to the conversation.

"That's fine but you two know you won't be going anywhere without me," Bailey then said to us with a smile on her face.

"Oh we know that you bloody great kangaroo," Ashley laughed as she finally broke through her tears for the first time in about an hour and a half.

"Yeah we know you can't live on your own," I poked my tongue out at her and took another piece of chocolate.

"Hey, I can live on my own, I just choose to scrounge in here," She smiled.

"Yeah right," Ashley laughed.

We all sat around laughing until about half ten when we decided that it was probably about time we got to bed, I sat on the end of Ashley's bed just thinking about what we were going to do.

"What's on your mind?" Ashley asked as she shimmied up the bed towards me.

"Just thinking about what we are going to do," I said to her.

"What's your thoughts?" She asked me as I looked at her as she placed her hand on my shoulder.

"Well I've got about twenty thousand saved up, from my injury pay out and just from the last couple of months work," I said to her.

"What did you have in mind to do with that?" She asked.

"Maybe to put the deposit on a house? What you think?" I asked her.

She just looked back at me completely stunned, "Erm."

"You don't think we're ready?" I asked her, "Do you?"

"I dunno but we're going to have to do something aren't we?" She replied as I laid back and she laid across my chest.

"We should probably talk about it in the morning," I told her as placed my head back into the pillow and closed my eyes.

"No, we should discuss this now," She said to me as she lifted herself up.

"Why you don't think we could do it so what's the point?" I replied as I kept my eyes closed hoping she couldn't see me.

"I said I wasn't sure but I guess we'll find out if we're ready won't we?"

"Yeah I hope we do," I whispered back.

"Hope.. Hope….. It's always I hope with you, when do we actually sit down and have a conversation?" She shouted to which I failed to respond, "Huh?"

"Look if you're just going to shout then I don't wanna talk right now so can you please talk to me calmly when you're ready." I told her as I climbed out of bed and put my leg on and stood up.

"Where are you going?" She spat at me.

"To the truck, neither of us will get sleep if I stay here," I said as I walked towards the door.

"Fine go, go back to Lympstone, what are you going to do in seven months when we have a baby together huh?" She shouted at me as I opened the door.

I closed the door and turned to look at her, "I don't know, I don't think you know how much of a strain you're putting on me with this."

"The strain on you?" She stood up and looked at me, "I am under more stress than you could ever imagine, I don't have a clue where you're going to be when the time comes to it, I don't know what I'm going to do, or if I could even keep my job going. Is that even getting into you?"

"Yes, it is," I sighed as I slumped down up against the door.

"Then why are we arguing?" She asked me as she walked over to me and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Because we're both terrified?" I looked up at her smiling for no apparent reason.

"Yeah that sounds about right," She shook as she came down to my height on the floor.

"Well you still haven't said do you think we could make it work in a bigger house?" I asked her quietly.

"We'll have to ask Bailey," She dodged.

"I think we know what she thinks, I want to know what you think," I directed back at her holding her hand.

"I think we should look at the prices but yeah I think we could manage it together," She replied, "But it has to be around here or as close as possible for work."

"I'd be thirty six and only just buying my first house," I laughed.

"And me thirty one and doing the same thing," She laughed to me as she sat down next to me.

"What are we like," I said to her as she rested her head on my shoulder.

"A couple of idiots," she stopped laughing for a second.

"Maybe but at least we're idiots together."

"Anchor what's the TOT of that reinforcement?" A raspy voice called out in the darkness of my slumber.

"About twenty minutes, Sir!" I called out into the black.

There was a long pause in the blackness leaving me in my thoughts until I started to hear loud explosions, "IDF!" A new voice shouted as I felt the explosions rattle my lungs.

"Contact!" A third voice added to the fray followed by a stream of gunfire.

I could feel my lungs tightening like someone was closing in around me I backed into what felt like an endless blackness, I felt something shake me to which I opened my eyes.

I saw Ashley stood over me I was clutching the pillow across my chest like a shield. "Arthur, are you okay?" She asked as she tried to help me but I couldn't respond, I could still ear the explosions and gunfire. "Arthur!" She shouted at me.

I heard Bailey rush into the room, "Fuck!" She shouted as she knelt down next to the bed pulling Ashley away, "Right I know you just wanna help him but right now he needs space, just stay there."

She kept her distance from me, "Hey Pomme, you're okay now there's nothing here, just us two."

I didn't entirely catch what she had said over the sounds of the gunfire but eventually the sounds stopped and my body relaxed, unfortunately I blacked out as I did.

I woke up at around half ten, seeing Ashley sat in the corner with her head in her hands, "Hey," I said gently as I sat up in the bed. She just looked up at me like I was a monster, "I'm sorry." I said to her feeling my gut wrench from what had happened.

"It's fine you're okay now," She said as she started to cry again.

"No it's not you shouldn't have seen me like that," I said to her as I joined her on the floor but she shuffled away from me.

"It's nothing I haven't seen before," She replied as she stood up and walked out of the door, I had to follow her.

I met Bailey in the kitchen just where Ashley had run to, "You feeling okay now?" Bailey asked as I sat down in a chair.

"Yeah I'm fine but I think that it's pretty much done with us now," I said as I heard Ashley lock the toilet door behind herself.

"Nah, she's just really quite scared," Bailey said as she poured me a glass of water and placed it on the table.

"I know I'd have run six miles by now," I told her.

"Yeah but she's seen it before," Bailey said to me as she sat opposite me on the table.

"Not like that I doubt, I mean people get violent when they have an attack like that," I said to her as I looked straight at her.

"I doubt she's seen it that close or to someone she's so close too," She reassured me as she took a swig from her coffee.

"How'd you know what was going on anyway?" I asked her.

"It wasn't being a bootlegger on tour that killed my brother, it was his time in civvies that he couldn't take so he ended it," She said as she looked down into her cup.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry," I said to her slumping back in my chair.

"It's fine, I've accepted it, he was just meant to be in the marines and when they kicked him for his illness then he couldn't take it," She shrugged.

"Still I can see why you resent the marines," I said to her.

"Resent?" She paused, "Fuck no, I respect what they do before John was a marine he was on the streets nothing but a dope smoking dead beat, they made him a man, gave me back my brother for a few years, that's all I wanted."

"Ah so you just come across as a bitter old lady," I poked my tongue out at her causing her to chuckle.

"Old?" She asked me. "I'm only twenty eight," She grinned.

"Damn I thought you were about the same age as Ashley?" I said to her as I looked around the room hearing the toilet door unlock.

"No there's a few years in it," Ashley said calmly as she came out into the room.

"You okay?" I asked her. She just nodded as she took a seat next to me at the table.

"I just have a few questions, so I can understand what happened to you a bit better," She said to me as she took my hand.

"Go ahead," I said feeling confident.

"What did you do when you lost your leg?" She probed.

"You know that I was a soldier," I said in an almost patronising way.

"Don't play games now, I want to know exactly what you were doing? I know you didn't come from the middle east you came from Europe," She said bluntly, but as I went to speak she continued, "And don't give me that I can't say shit, the government doesn't know what you get up to in your own house."

I sighed and slouched in the chair looking across at Ashley and Bailey, "You're right, where do I start, I wasn't in a traditional Army regiment, I was in the 22nd SAS, you know the ones who wear black hoods and storm embassies in their spare time." I watched them both nod, it didn't seem to come as a shock to either of them but then I went on to explain the mission, "We had been tasked to a country called Azerbaijan it's on the edge of the Caspian sea, we were sent to track down and kill, Haled Al-Assad, the man who nuked the Americans in Oman, but when things went south after we got him we had to go to Russia, essentially to stop an apocalypse before the world even knew it existed but again we averted it but it again went south and we ended up on a bridge over the river Ob' in the east, I stepped on a grenade and woke up in Birmingham. Didn't really look much different in places to be honest." I chuckled.

"And that's it the whole story, no bullshit?" Ashley said on the end.

I took a deep breath in knowing I had just betrayed my oath of silence, "Yep, that's it."

"Good, now did you want to go down to the estate agents to see how much a deposit is?" She then asked me.

"Erm…." I stammered before looking over to Bailey.

"I know you want a new house, I have a bit for the deposit too," She laughed.

"Ah, okay," I paused, "Yeah let's go." I said with actual impetus as if I actually had something to look forward too.

"Okay then." Ashley smiled.

It took about half an hour for us all to get dressed and get down to the estate agents, I had no idea what I was doing when the sales assistant sat across the table from them I had no idea what to say but we arranged a few house viewing which fit our needs for a house and came within our deposit limit but we still had to get a mortgage figured out with the bank, that however would have to some later.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and again I do wanna know if you think I am tackling the issues in this story with actual taste and not over doing it, I would appreciate the feedback as always But anyway I have to go and do some chemistry to now which sucks but until next time…PEACE!