Early Birds

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Ghost helped her downstairs with her bags and waited patiently as she said goodbye to Gaz and Soap. 'It's been great working with you guys. Look after yourselves' she said with a warm smile. She really was going to miss them.

'Look forward to working with you again Worm', Gaz said, giving her a hug.

Soap looked at her with his usual cheeky grin 'Ok, Soapy, give me a hug' she said holding her arms out.

'You're a braw lass, Worm. Hope that guy treats ye like ye deserve, hen' Soap said patting her on her head.

Price walked with them to her truck to say his goodbyes, engulfing her in a warm hug 'Great to have you back, love. You've been a real gem as always, Worm. Safe journey. I'll make sure this lad is home soon', he said letting her go with a proud smile.

'Drive safe now. I'll be back soon' Ghost said with a wink, before she got into her truck and waved goodbye. Ghost stood watching the truck as it turned towards the base gates and out of sight.

---

Cassie was happy to be back home in her cabin, despite the deep sadness at leaving Ghost. She soon set about sorting out her garden jobs for the next few weeks, now that the main growing season was drawing to a close. Between harvesting vegetables and herbs from her garden, she continued painting and cleaning the new extension to her cabin.

Cassie continued to have regular messages and video calls with Ghost when he wasn't on missions, counting down the days till he would be coming back home. With a couple of weeks till he was due to have leave, she spent time making up the furniture for the new office space in the extension, admiring the view of her garden from the large window they had installed specially.

Cassie finished setting up her laptop and work equipment in the office and made herself some coffee, in preparation for a video call with Ghost. He was due to head out on a re-con mission that night and Cassie was keen to see him before he left.

It wasn't long before the screen came to life and there he was, taking off his balaclava. 'Hi gorgeous girl. How you doing?', he asked smiling at her from the screen.

'Hey, handsome. Got the new office all set up now, so I'm good. How you doing?' she replied, happy to see him.

'I can see that, looks good from here, love. You did a great job. I've been busy, prepping for heading out to Urzikstan for the re-con with some of Farah's men. Should be about a week, then I'll be on leave', he replied, watching her intently.

'That's great, I can't wait to have you back home', she replied, wishing it was sooner.

Knowing that he would have to set off soon, Ghost prepared to say goodbye 'Gotta go love. You take care and I'll see you soon, yeah?'

'Have a safe trip Ghost, I'll see you soon. Love you Grizzly' she said not wanting to end the call.

'Love you too little Worm' he said ending the call.

---

Cassie got into her own preparation for welcoming Simon back home. She cleaned the cabin top to bottom and shopped for fresh groceries to make him his favourite foods. She canned some fruit and vegetables when she finished cleaning and baked some fresh bread and a couple of pies, eager to spoil him when he arrived.

The week went by with no further update from Ghost confirming his return from the mission and him leaving to come home, which automatically sent Cassie into worry mode. Was he hurt? Was there an issue on the mission meaning they were delayed? How long would he be? She wondered trying not to let her worry take over.

Keeping herself occupied, but having her laptop on hand for any notifications from him, Cassie started harvesting the early fruit from her trees, glad to have some distraction activity while she waited for news.

Another week came and went, with nothing from Ghost. After the second week of no news, Cassie was stressed with worry and anxiety. She knew that missions could easily be delayed, but with no further word from Ghost, she was concerned that he was stuck somewhere with no communication. Trying to rationalise her own fears, she reasoned that if there was a problem, Price would get in touch.

After another restless night, Cassie dragged herself out of bed to get her caffeine fix, hoping it would at least minimise the tiredness and worry. Sitting in her office looking at her laptop screen, she willed a notification to pop up, but there was nothing. Her mind racing with unwanted negative images, she headed out into the garden to do some more work.

While taking a break for lunch, a notification popped up on her laptop, to say she finally had a new message. Bouncing with excitement, she eagerly opened the message, looking forward to a long overdue word from Ghost. But the message wasn't from Ghost, it was from Price, asking if they could do a video call.

Cassie's stomach dropped, now knowing that something was seriously wrong. Ghost was hurt or even worse...no, she scolded herself, she wasn't going to go down that route. Nervously sending the call link to Price, she practically chewed her nails off waiting for him to connect and to come on screen.

Seeing Price's tired, strained and worried face, did nothing to stop the mounting feeling of dread that Cassie was experiencing. The tears already threatened to start, even without him saying a single word. Hesitantly she looked at Price 'What happened? Where's Simon?' she said, her voice breaking.

Price looked at the woman on the screen with sadness 'He's missing, love'.