Ghost and Soap quickly paid for their drinks and stepped out of the bar to put Ellie on speaker. "Is this actually you, Collins?" Ghost asked firmly.
"No, es el boogyman, fantasma. Of fucking course it's me!" (No, it's the boogyman, Ghost).
Soap and Ghost both exchanged confused looks. Soap's hand holding the phone was shaking slightly. "We saw you get shot!" he exclaimed. "You collapsed..."
"Near miss. Got a nasty cut though, and people are looking at me funny because of it."
Soap let out a shaking breath and Ghost cut in. "Where are you, Collins?"
"I'm in this sketchy ass motel, twenty or thirty miles from the warehouse." They could hear the exhaustion in her voice. "Listen, I need help... I have no money to get back home, and this motel is smack dab in the middle of cartel territory. Your number was the only one I had that I knew could help me, Soap."
Soap nodded and he and Ghost exchanged another look. Ellie was alive, and for the first time in the past 48 hours, Ghost saw happiness in Soap's face. "Can you send us the address to the motel?" Soap asked.
"My phone's calls and texts aren't working, which is why I had to use this landline. But I'll see if I can grab the address from Google. Give me a second."
They heard her typing, and Soap muted the mic. "How are we going to get her out of there?"
"I'll go," Ghost replied. "I'll grab a flight down to Mexico and bring her back that way."
"Alone?"
"If she's in dangerous territory like she said, it'll be best for me to go alone. Won't draw as much attention. Besides, I'm the reason she's down there in the first place. Consider this retribution for leaving her behind."
Soap clenched his jaw and sighed. "Fine. Just... don't mention I told you about how she felt about you."
"It'll be awkward enough as is," Ghost agreed.
Ellie gave them the address a few moments later, and Ghost wrote it down on his phone. "We'll get you out of there, El," Soap reassured her.
"Can you guys bring me a change of clothes?" Ellie asked, almost pleading. "I need to shower, but I don't want to put these ones back on. And a first aid kit. My head is killing me."
Ghost gave Soap a thumbs up and Soap replied with, "Yeah. We'll get you some. Sit tight, El."
Ghost listened to the relieved sigh she let out. "Please hurry... I've booked this room for tonight and tomorrow night. After that, I'm out on the street. Around here, I'm bound get jumped."
Ghost nodded to Soap. "Tell the colonel about her situation. I should be back in a day or so." Soap gave him a curt nod as Ghost turned and marched to his car.
○●○●○●○●
Ellie hung up the call fifteen minutes later, feeling much more relaxed than before. Her head was still feeling quite sore, and she could use another long sleep, but she didn't want to risk falling asleep around here during the night.
Turning on the TV, Ellie turned on a movie that was on one of the twelve channels and sat back to eat her food. The greasy chicken tasted better in that moment than any other food she had in her life, and she devoured six or seven pieces before she had to stop.
The evening turned into night, and Ellie felt herself become more alert as she heard voices coming and going outside. She kept her pistol close to her as she sat back on the bed and eyed the window. The blinds were fully closed and nobody could see in, but it didn't help her nerves at being stuck in this room alone.
She heard numerous things throughout the night, from voices chatting about their day, to drug deals, and the unfortunate times where prostitutes had come to visit some of the tenants. Ellie had to turn on the TV during those long hours to try and drown out the noise.
At one point in the middle of the night, she had grabbed her pistol when the handle to the room jostled, as if someone was testing the door. She held her breath, waiting for gunfire or someone to kick down the door, but soon whoever tried to open her door left.
Ellie didn't get a wink of sleep after that, and was exhausted by the time the sun came out and the activity died down. She risked taking a nap for an hour or two, but every creak and shuffle around her made her jolt awake. There was no word from Soap or Ghost, and she had debated on trying to call them again, but if they were in the air, they wouldn't get her message.
Ellie picked at the chicken from the night before, only eating when she felt like she had to. She felt dirty and wanted to shower, but she didn't want to risk it until the guys were there with some fresh clothes.
Finally, around three in the afternoon, Ellie heard a knock on the door. She immediately grabbed her pistol and snuck to the door quietly. Peeking through the eyehole, her heart skipped a beat when she saw the familiar mask of Ghost looking directly at her.
Ellie pulled the chair away from the door and unlocked it. She stood there and Ghost's gaze went down to her. He was wearing a hoodie and jeans, and the civilian mask, and had a backpack slung over a shoulder.
They stared at each other silently for a moment, Ellie in relief, and Ghost still in shock that she was alive. She watched his eyes rake over her face and land on her wound. For a moment, she saw his eyes soften before they furrowed as his gaze returned to her eyes. "Hey," she finally breathed.
Ghost raised his head slightly. "You look like shit, Collins."
Ellie rolled her eyes and couldn't supress the grin. "It's good to see you too, Ghost." She stepped aside, allowing Ghost to walk into the motel room. "Is Soap not with you?"
"Less conspicuous if I came alone," was all he said.
Ellie immediately locked the door again, and she watched as Ghost looked around the room, taking in the surroundings. Ellie's hands begun to wring together, something she did when she was anxious. "He couldn't be the one to come get me?"
Ghost turned to her, his gaze dark. It sent a chill up Ellie's spine. "I'm the reason you're in this situation, Collins. Sit on the bed."
Ellie immediately obeyed and Ghost put the backpack on the bed. She watched as he unzipped it and took out a black hoodie and dark grey sweatpants, along with a brand new pack of women's underwear. "Here," he said, handing it to her.
"These are way too big to fit me. You couldn't have grabbed some of my own things?"
"I wasn't going to go rummaging through your dresser." Ghost stepped in front of her and tilted her head back with his hand. Ellie's heart skipped as his eyes looked over her cut, then down to her red eye. "Take a shower, try and clean yourself up before I stitch that wound up."
Ellie could only nod as he let her face go. His massive frame standing over her and how he held her face made her stomach flip. Even after everything that had happened, she still had a stupid crush on him, and now she was stuck here with him. Ghost went over to look out of the closed blinds as Ellie composed herself to get up and go to the bathroom.
"Ghost?" she suddenly said, stopping by the bathroom door. When he turned his head to look at her, she smiled. "Thanks... for coming back."
She could see his brow furrow as he said nothing in return. Feeling an awkwardness grow, Ellie cleared her throat and went in to shower, locking the door.
As she tossed off the dirty clothes she had on, Ellie lifted the sweater Ghost had brought. It was a men's XL at least, and Ellie brought it to her nose to smell it. She let out a shaky breath when she realized it smelled like Ghost. Whether it was his or just smelled of him because it was in his backpack, Ellie felt a grin appear on her face at the thought of wearing his clothes.
The shower took a lot longer than she wanted. Ellie did all she could to avoid getting water in her cut, but sometimes it would hit it, and she'd start cursing and stand out of the falling water to stop herself from passing out from the pain.
Once she was done, she dressed in the clothes and new underwear Ghost bought her, and went to face the inevitable.
○●○●○●○●
"Ow."
Ellie shut her eyes and kept her facial muscles as soft as she could as Ghost begun another stitch on her head. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, and Ghost had pulled the chair from the door over to sit in it. She had her legs between his as he leaned in to close the wound one bit at a time.
The closeness was making Ellie's heart skip over and over. She did her best to focus on things other than the pain from Ghost closing the wound. All she could pick up on was how steady his deep breath was, and how her legs were trapped between his.
"Halfway, Collins," Ghost said as he pulled on the needle. Ellie gripped the blanket tightly to the point where her knuckles were white, but kept her facial muscles as soft as possible.
"Don't even have any numbing cream?" she muttered, opening her eyes. When she realized she was staring down at his groin, she shut them again to stop the blush from rising into her cheeks.
"No." He continued to stitch the wound slowly, and every second that went by made Ellie want to scream. The pain from the wound being stitched closed was just as bad as when she first woke up with it.
Ghost gave her skin a tug a bit too hard, and Ellie grabbed for the armrest of the chair tightly, digging her nails into it. She felt Ghost pause for a moment before he continued his work, letting out a bit of a deep breath.
It was only when Ellie opened her eyes when she realized she had grabbed his thigh.
Her body froze as she realized what she was doing. When Ghost didn't have her move her hand away, she focused then on how tough the muscle in his leg was in order to ignore the pain. Years of being in the military honed them to be hard to the touch, so it only made Ellie more curious on how toned the rest of his body would be.
Ghost tied off the stitching after another ten minutes of work and grabbed some gauze from the first aid kit. Ellie took that moment to let his leg go and hold her hands together in her lap. He applied the gauze and wrapped her head with a new bandage.
"That should do," he said as he closed the kit. "You'll have to get an x-ray when you get home to see if you fractured your skull."
"I don't feel like I did, but thank you, Ghost."
He nodded and took out a small bottle of painkillers and offered it to her. "Here. It's the strongest I could get."
Ellie looked at the medication as he moved the chair back to the window and put the kit away. "Don't have any morphine pills?" she joked.
"No." The way he answered her was sharp and angry, making Ellie raise an eyebrow. "They are an addicting medication."
"You know from experience?"
Ghost didn't answer her as he sat in the chair and peeked out of the window to look outside. Ellie scooted over to the far side of the queen bed and sat back against the pillow. She grabbed the cup of water she got earlier and swallowed two of the bitter painkillers.
"Try and get some sleep," Ghost said. "Our flight leaves at 11 in the morning tomorrow."
Ellie rested her head on her hand as she laid on her side to face him. "You should too," she pointed out. "There's room for you on the bed if you want. I don't bite."
"The chair will do me just fine," he grunted.
Ellie rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. "Your loss." She stared up at the ceiling for a while, and they remained silent for a minute before Ellie gave a small laugh.
"What's so funny?"
She glanced at Ghost as he eyed her. "I don't usually trust men, but I'm about to fall asleep with one of the most feared men in the military not ten feet away from me. And yet, I don't feel the slighest bit worried."
"Why do you not trust men?"
Ellie opened her mouth, but immediately shut it. "Had some bad experiences when I was younger," was all she said. The skin where her tattoo was on her back almost seemed to tingle as she thought of the trauma she had endured.
"And you trust me?" Ghost asked.
"I never said that."
"You trust me not to hurt you while you sleep?"
Ellie looked over at him. "No, I believe you won't. If you wanted to hurt me, you would've left me here at the mercy of the cartel." She crossed her arms. "I'm glad you didn't though, Simon."
Ghost let out a small growl as he looked out of the crack in the blinds he made. "Don't use my name," he snipped. "You haven't earned the right."
"Earned the right?" Ellie scoffed. "Jesus, you're quite self centered with that, aren't you?"
"Only my friends may call me by Simon." He turned his dark eyes to her. "And you are not my friend."
Ellie blinked at him. She wasn't surprised that he was so private, with the things he'd probably seen growing up and being in the military. Even though nobody knew her full name, she was a bit hurt at his words.
"Fine," she replied, waving a hand at him. "And to think we were getting along so well." She shifted to lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling as the painkillers began to kick in, along with the exhaustion from lack of sleep. "Good night, Ghost."
Ghost only let out a quiet grunt in reply, but Ellie didn't care as sleep overtook her.