Never Yours

Game night

THE VERY next day after our briefing in a hangar classroom, we all decided we needed another event to cool off a little seeing as the volleyball game had gone so well. Everyone had thrown in some suggestions but I think by far, the best was a team game night.

"Sure, I'm up for that. What time, where and what games?" I asked to establish a better mental picture for the event that was currently being organised, between us all.

"Mmh. How about Monday night, my place with any board games we fancy playing?" Slider suggested. A series of 'yeps' and 'sounds fab to me, cheers mate!' chorused his previous inquiry. It sounded fun to me but the only objection I had was the location. Since Slider was Iceman's RIO, that meant he was staying in a shared accommodation with him. Which therefore, meant that Iceman would be present at our game night. Of course I wanted everyone to be included (since working as a team is practically essential in our job) but there was something of a rift between us that was only growing by the day and I wasn't sure it could be closed...

"Mav, what do you say? Hey buddy, you alright? You look a little worse for wear." Goose said, panic gracing his eyes. What he'd said hadn't been entirely false. After our early morning hop, I'd come back down with a migraine and a slight sense of nausea. It wasn't that bad though. It could wait and besides, this was far more important than my alleged illness.

"O-oh yeah, sounds great with me. I'll see y'all there later on, yeah?" I questioned with a small smile. It was the only thing I could offer without either passing out or throwing up.

"Mav." Goose stated, concerned.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"You're ill and you know it. C'mon, go sit down and we can figure this whole thing out. Game night can be rearranged to another day. Your health is way more important." He said, gently.

"No! I'm fine." I snapped. Goose stepped back a few paces, shocked at my outburst. I knew he meant well but it was irritating me how he thought I needed to be treated like a child. I didn't mean it to be anything personal and I'd probably apologise later (when I had the energy to and I'd calmed down a little first) but right now, everyone was annoying me since I had a horrible migraine. He didn't say anything more after that.

"Time?" I asked.

"Half past nine." Slider informed me. I gave a nod in response (which I severely regret for it made my head spin even more).

"Okay, thanks. I'll be there don't worry. See you all later." I said as I spun on my heel and promptly walked away to my temporary lodgings that me and Goose shared that had been provided by the Navy whilst we were training here.

Once I'd arrived back at the lodgings, I immediately dumped my stuff in the hallway and grabbed some paracetamol for my head (which was still spinning). Accompanied by a refreshing glass of milk (it was the only thing I had to hand and I didn't feel like drinking water), I swallowed the tablets and mentally noted the time so that I could take more later if need be. I suppose now, I just had to put up with the pain until they kicked in which hopefully, shouldn't be too long now but you never know. Walking back into the hallway, I picked up my stuff and took it into my room, quietly closing the door behind me. Putting my things away neatly (or as neatly as I could manage to), I slumped down onto my bed, arms and legs sprawled across the duvet like a starfish. Taking some deep breaths, I tried to calm myself down in hopes that the pain in my head would disappear. It worked to a certain extent but only because I think the painkillers had finally taken effect. "Ahh, God damn it." I mumbled. I still had revision prep to complete for tomorrow's pop quiz that Charlie was supposedly going to be giving us. I sat up (maybe a little too quickly) which caused my head to spin again and me to slump backwards in pain, feeling awful and drowsy. Perhaps it would be prudent if I sat up a little slower this time and went into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee to keep my tiredness at bay?