We landed at the base. Price had woken up a while ago, but given the glowering silence in the chopper he made the right decision to shut up. I was sure that Ghost would have thrown Price out of the helicopter if Price pissed him off. More that is. All of us were still in shock. I couldn't believe what Price had pulled. Boy was he in trouble.
The minute we touched down, Soap stuck his head into the chopper. He was pissed. "Out"
He snarled at Price. Sighing, Price got out, followed by Ghost, who I noticed, had his finger on the trigger of his ACR. Price was explaining things to Soap, but I ignored him. I had to make sure Langley and Sarah were OK. I marched upto my room, and grabbed my cell phone. Last I heard, Langley was with the 75th Rangers. Luckily, I had some contacts there. The phone wasn't connecting. It seemed that the EMP had taken everything down. Fuck. I hoped Sarah had gotten out. The little kid shouldn't have joined the military. But I was proud of her. First woman in the 75th Rangers. The guys she was with, Dunn and Foley were good guys. But I was still worried. As much as I hated it, I decided to use my CIA flout to get in. I grabbed my laptop from the bed and switched it on. I went secure, and then opened up the soldier list. My hands were shaking when I typed in "Sarah Hawkins". The loading bar showed up. And then her face. With the red letters KIA stamped across it. My world came down. Price had killed my little sister. I couldn't believe it. This had to be a mistake. Before I could break down, the door opened, and Prophet walked in. He gave me a smile. I smiled back, albeit a little smaller than normal. Prophet probably noticed, because he frowned. Then he asked "What happened Shadow?"
With a shaky voice I said "Sarah, my little sister, is KIA. She was in DC." As I said it, the pain got worse. My baby sister was gone. "I'm sorry" Prophet whispered, putting his arm around me. I started to cry. This was awful. Price had killed my sister. He probably saved the US, but he killed my sister. Prophet just sat next to me. Honestly, it felt wrong. I was with Ghost, and yet, Prophet knew more about me than Ghost did. Finally, I dried my eyes, and left the room. I just walked. I still held a little hope that it was a mistake, but I knew it wasn't.
Soon enough, I ran into Ghost. "Shadow. We need to talk" He said grimly. We walked to his office, and he shut the door. McTavish was sitting there too, along with Price. There was an awkward silence for a minute. Then Mactavish said "Lass. Sorry to tell you this, but your sister is dead. KIA. The nuke went off, and the helo she was in went down. The Rangers got her out. But they couldn't stabilize her. I'm sorry." Tears came up again. So Price was directly responsible. Before I had time to think, I lunged at Price screaming "You fucking bastard!". Luckily, Ghost was faster than me and he pulled me back. "Sergeant Hawkins get a hold on yourself!" He bellowed in his XO voice. Training kicked in and I managed to get a hold on yourself. Then in a gentler voice Ghost said "I know you're hurting, but hold on soldier. Dismissed." I turned around and went out. On the way I ran into Roach. From the stupid grin he had, I knew he neither knew about Sarah and he had decided post mission stress was best dealt with via a prank. "Bug. Whatever you've done, leave me outta it." I said.
"Aww Shadow come on" Roach whined. Before I had the chance to ask him who he pranked, I heard Archer's yell "Who the FUCK put glitter in my mag?!" Ah boy. Roach was giggling like a little girl. "I put glitter. And when Archer picked up the mag, he got covered in pink glitter." Archer in pink glitter was funny. It didn't take away all the pain, but definitely made it easier to deal with. And then Archer came in covered in pink glitter, which made me give a wistful smile, and Roach stopped giggling and focused on surviving. Once Archer and Roach left, the latter in the lead, yelling for Toad to save him from "the maniac with a really big gun", Ghost showed up. "How are you holding up?" he asked me, his deep voice calm and concerned. "I'm OK I guess." I said. I hated that I couldn't tell Ghost everything. It wasn't right for him not to know. But I couldn't blow my cover. "Better get some rest then. As much as I'd want to, I can't let up on your training tomorrow." On an impulse, I gave him a hug, and then pulled up his mask for a quick kiss. His lips curved into a little smile as I pulled the mask back down. We headed our separate ways. All of a sudden, I heard gunfire. Not on the range; in the base. What the fuck? This day kept getting better and better, not.
A/N: Hey there, been a while, but I'm back! Sorry for the hiatus had too much work to really do much for the story. But I'm back, and you can expect more regular and frequent updates. Thanks to SMakarov for betaing this!