Stand My Ground {EDITING}

Chapter 3 {EDITED}

   I sat outside of the Captain's office like a kid that got in trouble in school. Aidan sat next to me and rubbed his hands together nervously. I laughed at Aidan being the nervous one for once. "What? Don't you ever get nervous?" he asked with all seriousness.
    "You look like you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar," I said still laughing. Aidan shook his head at me causing me to laugh harder.
    "Just because you're used to this kind of pressure doesn't mean you aren't nervous," he joked.
    "There's no need to be nervous. Nothing bad is going to happen," I said with a smile. Just then, we heard mom raising her voice at the Captain. The door opened and a gray haired man stepped out.
    "Thompson, will you come in here please?" the gray haired man asked.
    "Yes, Captain," I said, getting up from my seat to follow him inside. He motioned for me to sit in a seat in front of his desk. Mom was pacing around the room with a red face. "What's going on, skipper?"
    "What happened on that mission?" the Captain, Joe, asked.
    How rude. I asked first. I straightened up in my chair and thought long and hard. "We left the camp early that day so we could get back and have some much needed rest. Once we got to the city, there was several civilians walking around, acting suspicious," I started. The mission replayed in my head like a movie.
    "Hey, Pooch. Would you slow down? Some of us can't walk that fast," Johnson whined from behind me. I turned around and smiled cheekily.
    "You know, Alex, maybe you would like to take Apache for a run when we get back. He can help you increase speed," I said with a laugh. Everyone else joined my laughter.
    "Haha. I don't even understand why we're doing this mission. All there is here is civilians," Alex whined again.
    "Johnson, quit whining and do your job!" I commanded. Alex playfully cried. Apache stopped in his tracks and looked back at me. I held my hand up to stop everyone. I motioned for Apache to continue, but he refused to do so.
    "What's going on?" Jay Payne asked from beside me.
    "There's danger ahead," I stated calmly. Apache looked up at me then back toward the trail. That was when the shootout began. "Take cover!" I yelled. There was only a few of them against us, but they were setting charges off. Jay was beside me shooting at one of the enemy soldiers. Apache kept tugging on my sleeve for me to follow him.
    "What does the dog want?" he asked as he took out another one of the enemy.
    "He wants me to follow," I said looking at him with all seriousness. He let out a sigh.
    "I'll cover you. See what he wants you to know about," Jay said as he started shooting again. I nodded then followed Apache. Apache led me to an abandoned building that no one was paying attention to. He looked up at me wanting permission to enter. I took a peek inside to see what he was after. I saw our prisoner sitting at a table, eating a meal. I motioned for Apache to enter. He ran inside and pounced on the prisoner. I followed behind and pointed my weapon at him. Apache stood beside me in satisfaction, seeing that the prisoner surrendered.
    "Good boy," I said, rubbing his head. I picked the guy up off the ground and turned around with him to be met with a loud bang. I fell to the floor and watched as Apache went bloodthirsty. Everything went black in a matter of seconds.
    I opened my eyes, not realizing I had closed them, once the bang had shook me out of the memory. I looked up to see my mother with tears and Joe with an interested look on his face. "After that mission, I was separated from Apache and sent home," I said, looking at my hands.
    "That doesn't explain why they sent you home. They probably would have sent you back to the frontline. Are you sure you're telling me everything you know?" he asked bitterly. That was when my mother jumped in.
    "Don't accuse my daughter of lying. She has been raised better than that and knows that I would give her a good whooping if she lied. She wouldn't lie about such a thing. She wouldn't lie to you even if she was told to," my mother said with anger.
    Should I tell them? No. It won't make a difference. Yes it will. It's something important that could save my friends and family from getting hurt. Even if it means that I would most likely die. The conflict inside of my head made me start to breath really quickly and rapidly. Oh no. Not an attack. Please not now. I stood up and tried to calm down. It wasn't working! Mom and Captain stopped arguing once they saw me starting to cry and hyperventilate.
    "Thompson, what's wrong?" the Captain asked with worry. I shook my head with more tears. "She's having a panic attack," he said, maneuvering around his desk to be beside me. He sat me down on the floor and had me to sip on a bottle of water that he had on his desk. I calmed down after drinking the whole bottle of water and several tears shed.
    "I think we should finish this up on a later date," my mom said as she tried to help me up. Joe nodded then went to take his seat at his desk to do paperwork. I walked outside to a worried looking Aidan.
    "Are you okay? I heard crying," he asked, looking me over for any sign of injury. I laughed at my overprotective brother.
    "I'm fine. I just had another panic attack. I'll be okay, I promise," I said, looking at my brother straight in his eyes. His blue eyes twinkled with concern and disbelief in my answer. "I promise you, Aidan, that I'm fine. There's no need for you to worry." Aidan nodded.
    "Okay, but if I find out that something is actually wrong with my little sister, there's going to be some consequences," he joked. I laughed at his corny joke then walked pass him and toward the car. I laid back in my seat and closed my eyes to finish calming down from the little episode I just had.
    Jay wanted me to video chat him once I got home, I thought to myself once the thought popped up in my mind. Whoops. I'll video chat him when I get back to the house. It wasn't long after that, that we pulled into the driveway of our two story house. I jumped out of the car and ran upstairs to my room and grabbed my laptop. I typed in my username and password then scrolled down to Jay's username. Huh. He changed it to CoolDude26. I rolled my eyes then clicked his username. It rang twice before Jay's face popped up along with Alex Johnson's.
    "Hey, Pooch. It took you long enough. How is everythi- What happened to your lip?" Jay asked with concern.
    "Hey, Jay. I, um, kind of got into a little fight at the mall,"I said, not sure on how to explain. I jumped when my door flew open and hit the wall.
    "Cameron, I wouldn't have called that a 'little' fight. You have a concussion and a cracked rib from it for Heaven's sake!" Aidan said matter-of-factly.
    "Who was that?" Jay asked in confusion.
    "Oh yeah. Jay this is Aidan, my older idiot brother. Aidan this Jay," I introduced, turning the laptop so Aidan could see Jay and vice versa.
    "Oh, is that the guy that you said was so cute?" Aidan said with a smirk. I started blushing badly.
    "Aw, the Pooch said that about me? I better change my username to CuteDude26," Jay said with a laugh.
    "Where did that nickname come from, Cameron? Is there something you aren't telling me?" Aidan asked lifting his eyebrow and putting his hands on his hips like my mother did when I used to get in trouble. I put my head in my hands in embarrassment.
    "Aidan, it doesn't mean that!" I yelled with my face turning redder, "Think about it! I worked with a dog. People call their dogs 'pooch'." Aidan molded his mouth in an 'o'. I rolled my eyes at him. I turned my laptop back around to face me. Jay and Alex were cracking up and trying not to bust out laughing. "Only my brother would think THAT," I whispered, shaking my head as Aidan left my room with a smirk. Jay and Alex lost it and laughed so hard that they were crying.
    "Getting back on topic, what happened at this fight?" Jay asked once he sobered up.
    "Some random guy came up to me and demanded that I give him information on a prisoner," I said. Jay and Alex looked at each other.
    "Two questions. How did he know you, and what happened from there?" Alex spoke up before Jay could.
    "I don't even know how he knew me. After he demanded for the information, I tried to leave, but he tightened his grip on me. I used my training and flipped him on his back. The rest was too fast for me to remember," I recalled, "I remember being thrown into the glass door at the front of the mall. All the people that were around us were videoing us the whole time. I'm pretty sure I'm all over the internet by now."
    "How did you get away from him?" Jay asked with curiosity. I let a chuckle leave my lips.
    "I kicked him where the sun doesn't shine," I said with a smirk.
    "That's the way to do it, Pooch," Jay said with a laugh joined by Alex. Someone yelled in the background. "Hey, Pooch, we gotta go. We have another mission. Call me back tomorrow."
    "Yes, sir," I said with a laugh. I closed out of the video chat and laid back in my bed and stared at the ceiling. Why do people want me so bad? I don't think it's because of what happened. Or could it?