salute [james conrad] 1

Chapter 5

The music blares through the speakers, laughter echoes all over the deck, and everybody dances to the upbeat tune.

Soldiers dance shirtless, enjoying the sun, and their last moments before the mission starts.

Other soldiers are sitting down, write letters, worried that they might not come back.

And Charlotte? She sits on a chair, enjoying the sun, sipping on a beer. While she stares around at the joyful soldiers.

Mason takes pictures, laughing and smiling at the goofiness of them.

Chapman looks at Charlotte, who is staring at the storm ahead of them.

"Wilson!" Charlotte's head turns at the direction of her last name, and Chapman waves her over.

When she shakes her head, the other soldiers boo and holler at her.

She smiles slightly and shakes her head.

"C'mon!" Mason says, walking over to her.

"Have some fun! It's the last we might have in a while!" She begs.

Charlotte takes another sip.

"Yeah. I've had my fun. I lot of it actually. I need to sit still for a second" She says, looking at the soldiers, who are still dancing and fooling around.

Mason takes a seat besides her and looks at her.

"What? You can never have too much fun!" She says. She holds out a hand to Charlotte, which she looks at for a moment.

Finally, she sighs and puts her beer down, taking her hand, and standing up.

The soldiers cheer, and she waves them off, but a smile still etches her face as she walks towards them.

It reminds her of when she was in the army. All the fun they had. Nothing was ever taken seriously outside their complicated missions. It was all fun and goofing around. Until that goofiness and idiotness had caused the death of one of her best friends.

She shrugs the images off her mind and starts dancing to the beat of the music. Her hair, which was once in a low ponytail is now 

Smiling at the camera that Mason is holding, and holding up two thumbs up when she takes pictures, she jokes around with the soldiers.

Charlotte turns around, her mind completely forgotten about the dangers she is about to face.

And then makes eye contact with the storm.

Her smile drops, as do her arms, and she just stares.

How would they pass that? How would they even make it out alive? 

She sighs and stares at the storm for a moment before turning to the soldiers, who are still dancing. 

"Alright!" She shouts, clapping her hands. She motions for the music to be shut off.

"I think it's time that everyone go to their positions!" She yells. The soldiers nod and put on their shirts, already in mission mode.

From the upper deck, Conrad watches, entranced by the way she acts. 

One second she is dancing her heart out, the next she is back to her snarky self. 

There was something about her, that not only made him wary, but at the same time made him want to know everything about her. 

Her past as a Ranger, her family, why she was here. Everything. 

Guess he would find out later. 

A/N: Sorry these chapters have been so short, I promise the story is just picking up, and it will become more long as the chapters go by. Thank you for reading!