The Soldier Next Door

I am standing over a rather confused Emma. Now I am not sure if she is confused because of the way that I have left her breathless and panting or if I have just caught her out on her lie. I am firmly leaning to the latter. So as I wait patiently for her to dress, I play a hundred scenarios in my head of house this can go. Well, if I think if this was going to be a difficult interrogation, she does surprise me.

“The name is Emma, Raider, with direct orders from the Chief.”

“What are you doing here?”

“You have a mole in your camp.”

“Yes, that I know.”

“Fuck, why did you not just ask me before you seduced me?”

“You seduced me.”

“So you return the favor?”

I only but chuckle at her, but this is raising an issue, and god, not that one that was thinking with his fucking head. The issue is, how do the boys at Pendleton know?

“How do you know about this, I mean the guys back home?”

“They intercepted a call just by pure dumb luck.”

“Okay, fair, why are you in a squad, surely you do not need to be fully hands-on for this?”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“The mole is in Gibbs’s squad. The call went out when you were the only squad on a mission.”

There is a wave of anger that sets over me as I listen to every word that she says. I treat all those boys as part of the family, every single one, even if they are rookies. We are a team and we ought to be working together. But one fuck feels the need to break away from this and lay chaos. Do I even want to ask if this was a reason why Gibbs got shot? I can say this, this man is going to find himself on the wrong side of my fist.

But as this stews in my head, I have Emma standing and staring at me intently.

“You got a girl at home?”

“Yes, fiancé, with a baby on the way.”

“You took quite a risk back there.”

“Nah, it would not have gone further than it did. And if I don’t lie to her, then she will understand.”

“Well, can we agree on not doing that again to get information out of me?”

“You damn sure.”

Ya, I am damn sure, I don’t think I thought that one through completely. Yes, I am goddamn frustrated but I will never cheat on Ana. Talking about Ana, I have not phoned her since yesterday morning, the girl is going to kill me.

So with utmost confidence, and a few staring faces, with rather big smiles, I make my way back to my tent. But before I get there I have Gibbs in front of me.

“So?”

“So what?”

“How was it?”

“How was what?”

“You know.”

“You know what?”

“That.”

“For fuck sakes Gibbs, just get out with it.”

I know what the man wants, but does he think for one minute I am going to agree with what he thinks. This man is like a damn gossip column, the entire camp will now by the end of the next hour.

“You and Emma finally hooked up.”

“Gibbs, you know I am not a quiet man. So did you hear me?”

“No.”

“Ugh, you are impossible, now I need to phone Ana and tell her I seduced another woman.”

“I knew you did something!”

“Fuck! Try not spread a damn rumor.”

With that, I leave kicking my own as for letting the words slip my mouth. But yes, I am saying that she is going to understand, the thing is will she understand? I know exactly what she will say, but let me rather not guess now. With this I find myself in my tent, holding my phone rather nervously in my hand. My hand is shaking so much that I cannot even dial her number. If I don’t phone her soon then she is going to know that something is wrong. And if I even wait longer to tell her, she is definitely not going to believe me at all. So I swipe up and dial her phone.

Ya, and I am grinding my teeth as I impatiently tap my fingers on my knee. I feel like a schoolboy that is waiting to go into the principal’s office. Just as I am about to drop, she answers.

“Hey, soldier.”

“Hey boo. What you up to? Are you hugging the toilet again?”

“Ethan.”

“I know. I miss you.”

“Yes, and it is five more months to go. I don’t know how you doing it but I am going crazy.”

“We are busy all the time, so the time does seem to go a bit faster. But, tell me how is the baby.”

“Your mom and I are going for my checkup tomorrow.”

Just the mention of not being there for these things knocks my heart hard. I am supposed to be there and not let her do this alone. But she understands and understands I maybe not something she will as I tell her what I have done.

“Boo, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Yes,” I hear her somewhat hesitate as she drags out her words and it immediately tells me she already thinks that there is something wrong. God, if she only knew what is wrong.

“There…is….” I stutter as I start to explain. “Well, let me tell you this part first.”

I step outside my tent to see if there is anyone around that can hear me, confident I am alone I go back inside and continue, “We have a mole.”

“What! A mole?”

“Yes, my old squad, Gibbs’s squad.”

“Do you know who it is?”

“No, not yet,” I stop and take a deep breath before I carry on. “But there is a girl that has been sent to here to find out who he is.”

“A girl?”

“Yes, Emma, she is a Raider.”

“Fuck it must be serious then. So is she part of the nurse’s team?”

Well, this is now just about going to go south, the phone might either get thrown down in my ear or I can find myself unengaged, maybe even perhaps both. But I am not lying to her, I have come this far, I can do this. I made a bad judgment call, so I need to own up to it.

“No, she is in Gibbs’s squad. She has already been out with us.”

“Ethan are you still going out with the squad?”‘

“Yes I am and I am not going to stop doing that boo, you need to understand.”

She goes quiet for what seems like a few uncomfortable moments too long, “I understand, I wish you did not, but I understand. But now why did this girl break her cover?”

“Well, she did not, I kind of suspected that she was not really whom she said she was. But…”

“Soldier, what did you do?”

I burst out in a deep rumble of laughter, she knows me so damn well, I think if I don’t tell her she would even guess it herself.

“The thing is, I think I might have asked her the wrong way.”

“You think or you know?”

“Let us rather lay towards I know. But at the time, and how fucked up this sound for you will find out in a while, but at the time I thought it was a good idea.”

“Now we both know that you never have good ideas. They are all bad, it is just the level that varies. But, I am leaning towards that I am not going to like what I hear.”

“Well it depends how much you love me, and of course you know how my head works.”

“Yes, that one is debatable.”

So with one big breath, I count up…one…two…three…

“I seduced her.”

“You did what?” I immediately need to pull the phone away from her ear as I hear her voice come screaming from the other side. “Did you just say seduce?”

“Yes.”

“Please define seduce here for me, for that varies just as your bad ideas, which in fact in this cause is a fucking stupid idea.”

“I only kissed her,” I clench my hand in a fist as I squeeze really hard, hoping that the moment will just carry itself away, but the harder I squeeze, the more the stupidity of my actions come flowing through my brain. But, “Yes, we only kissed and I might have taken her top off.”

“You might or you did?”

“Okay, I did. But that is it, I promise, that is it.”

“Ethan Hunter, from all the stupid things, and stupid is saying it kindly, but this is by far goddamn… Ugh… It does not help to get mad with you, I am just happy you are not keeping it from me, well, if that is supposed to light up that damn dark empty brain of yours.”

“Boo, I am sorry. I know that it was not thought through that well.”

“I am not saying it is fine, and I am not understanding. But next time think with the right head.”

With that, I nearly topple over my bed. This damn woman, I love her so much.

“Listen boo, I must go. I love you.”

“Love you too you damn idiot.”

With that, I drop the call and fall back onto my bed with relief, but just then I hear a scuffle at the back of my tent.