Home - COD Simon Ghost Riley X Female OC

Simon & MJ #1 - Part 1

It was the heat of the summer and Simon had been gone for weeks. If someone told MJ he'd been gone for years, she might believe them. She did well on her own, she kept their little home, she worked, she stayed busy. But she missed him. One minute alone in the apartment was enough to make her feel like he'd never been there at all, and the thought was terrifying to her.

She knew its what she had signed up for. What she had asked for, what she had so deeply wanted. To be in his life, to be a part of who he was before she came along. He gave her the same. And when he returned, it always felt like a tidal wave of joy. Something she'd never quite dreamt of, something she imagined only happened in the novels she'd amassed and movies she'd cried through.

But he did it for her. She marveled often at how he'd never swept someone off their feet before, how no one had fallen flat on their face over his brooding and his big, gilded eyes. She'd settled on the idea that many had, he just hadn't cared to explore it. She was the lucky one.

He'd told her once that he'd never been in love. She knew that was no lie because he struggled with it a lot. He bordered on possessive when he was in a low place, sure that if she stepped out the door without him at her back then someone else would free her and carry her off like he had. She always convinced him to let her, but she often came home to him a mess, though he refused to acknowledge it. MJ met him always with softness. It never angered her. It wasn't jealousy or lack of trust, it was just a long life of nightmares, waking and sleeping, and she would be at his side to face them.

She had plenty of her own, after all, and they'd been worse the past few days. That night it was a constant loop, a familiar replay of him wasting away before her eyes in the desert. Dead in her place.

This time, it took her several minutes of gripping the sheets, listening to the city sounds outside to realize it was just a nightmare. She reached an arm to his side of the bed. She was no less alone in spite of that fact. She wanted him back. Most nights, even the hard ones, she was proud of him, so full of awe at what he did, at his strength. She missed him sure, but she wanted him out there, fulfilling his purpose, doing what he loved. But that night, she needed him. She wanted him there.

She got up for a glass of water, humming to herself to fill the silence that seemed overly oppressive. And as she climbed back into bed, on his side this time, her phone rang.

She stared at it. Her heart sputtered, ramming against her ribs at a breakneck pace and making her hands shake. She steeled herself, so her voice sounded normal. She'd prepared herself for this, gone over her responses and how she would act to the CO on the phone. She had known it was a possibility since the moment he first stepped out of their door all those months ago. She had just hoped it would never, ever happen.

It was an unknown number, she couldn't be sure who was calling, but she had a feeling. She knew little about the assignment, just that it had to do with Russia. Just that it was a mercifully short flight, comparatively.

"Hello?"

"Mariana."

She hadn't expected Price himself to call her. She swallowed the bile at the back of her throat. "Price."

"MJ, Simon has been injured. We're back in Warsaw." He paused. "I think it's best if you come out."

"Okay." MJ scrambled backward off the bed and onto her feet. Her heart was back in her throat and she clutched at it with her free hand. "How?"

"I'll get you a flight. How soon can you be ready?"

She glanced around the room. She couldn't even think about packing. Her passport was in the safe. "Now."