Evergarden No More

Part Twenty-Eight: I want to stay by your side

"Three, two, one! Charge!"
They opened the hatch and jumped in, one by one. Claudia Hodgins being the first to jump in.

"Violet?" He saw Violet laying on the floor.

"You found her?" Gilbert said through the radio.

"Yeah, I'll hand her over to the medics, she looks pretty bad." Claudia replied.

He sighed, "Okay then, order a sweep amd come back up."

"Got it." Claudia carried Violet on his back. "Sweep the area for them! Be careful, it's too quiet down here."

He walked on the bottom of the hatch and said, "Bring down a ladder!"

The ladder slid down, and he climbed up.

He ran over to the ambulance. "Here, take care of her." He said with an worried face.

Violet was like a daughter to him, he can't but feel worried for her well-being.

He ran back down and helped scout the area. He noticed his team running back to him.

"What is it?" He asked.

"All the members are all knocked out by someone, as far as we know, all the members of the Red Scorpions group is in captive." One of the men said.

"What?" Claudia said. "Okay then, bring them back up, I'll report this to Gilbert."

He was amused more than shocked, Violet was the only one down there.

Gilbert said to report to a guy named James.

"Who's James here!?" He shouted.

"I am, sir." James said.

"Oh okay, Gilbert said that you'll be the one to escort me to him after the mission." Claudia said.

"Oh, the missions over sir?" asked James.

"Yup, seems someone knocked out all the members and locked them in two of the room. We'll interrogate one of them later, but as far as we know, we're all done." Claudia said, running his hand through his hair.

'Mmm, well for my first field mission, that was easy.' "Okay then sir, Tyler and I will escort you to Major Gilbert for the report."
James said, walking over to the Jeep.

Gilbert sighed deeply, "That was uneventful."

"How do you know?" asked Liam.

"Hodgins didn't roger back, that means he's heading this way." Gilbert said, laying his head on the desk.

"Oh, you trust him huh?" Liam asked.

"Yeah, he's been with me since the start of the war." Gilbert replied.

"So why are you so down? Is this about your girlfriend?" Asked Liam.

"Yeah. She's always in danger because of me." Gilbert said, sulking. "I just hope that she's okay. I trust her of course, she's strong, stronger than me even. But I can't..."

"Can't what?" Liam asked softly.

"I feel like I can't leave her side. I feel like if I did, she's going to kill me because of me worrying over her. I can't sit still thinking if she's safe or not all the time. I...I don't want to leave her alone anymore but.....I don't know if she'll like that." Gilbert said, groaning.

Liam chuckled.

"What?" Gilbert said.

"You remind me of myself when I was with my wife." 'Just before I asked her to marry me.' Liam chuckled. 'This kid is in love.'