„You're fuckin' cheating!" Soap slammed his hands on the table, pointing a finger at Rora. She had to try her hardest to hold back a laugh as she stared back at the furious Scotsman. When he got angry, his accent popped a lot more, and the fact that he let out a few Scottish curse words only made it harder to take him seriously.
„Maybe Uno is just not your game, lad," Gaz popped his lips, currently stopping in the middle of cleaning his gun. He was the first to lose, so he just wanted something to occupy his hands.
„Neither is anything," Rora sang with the most innocent smile on her face. Alejandro let out a hearty laugh across from her, and even Soap found it hard to not smile at least a little.
„Away an bile yer heid," Soap threw his hands in the air, giving up on fighting for his truth.
„Did somebody else hear bagpipe noises?" dramatically, Rora turned around in her seat, looking around with narrowed eyes. Gaz finally broke beside her as he tried to hide his laugh behind his hand, looking away from Soap.
„You want your arse handed to you, ye fuckin' bampot?" Soap pushed his chair back, and that was her breaking point as Rora threw her head back, laughing along with the boys around her.
But their fun only lasted for so long, as Price burst through the door, Ghost right after him. Her smile faltered as her eyes met with his, all the others quieting down as well.
„Alright, listen-" Price spoke up, his voice bouncing back from the walls, earning all the attention in the room as he stopped at their table. Alejandro rose from his seat, his previous smile nowhere to be found. „We are taking back your HQ. We are getting our prisoner. We are killing Commander Graves."
We are killing Commander Graves.
Those words were the most beautiful ones she have heard in a long time, her body already switching into mission mode. Placing down her cards on the table, she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. She would've stood up if she could because all the energy filling every inch of her body made her fidgety, but she had to rest her leg a little more.
„When?" Rudy asked the question all of them wanted to know the answer to.
„Now," Ghost spoke up for the first time, her eyes immediately snapping to his face. Their eyes met again, fire igniting within her. This was the first time they were in such close proximity since the whole training ground thing.
„This is a fight against our own... We are not 141 and Los Vaqueros on this. We're a team..." Rora's observant eyes watched as Ghost pulled out a backpack, then dumped its content on the table they were playing Uno only a few minutes ago. Her entire body froze at the sight of the masks. „..Ghost Team."
Her thoughts involuntary wandered towards Everett, her eyes catching a glimpse of his ghost in the back corner. But when she looked there, there was nobody. Price's gaze softened when he noticed the sudden shift in her mood and sent her a tight smile as encouragement. She nodded in his direction with gratitude, but a small motion on her left diverted her attention.
Ghost pulled his mask off, in front of everyone. And suddenly, she forgot how to breathe.
His eyes found hers in a heartbeat, staring down at her, and even though she was still pissed at him and wanted to punch him in the face, she couldn't help but stare at him with amazement. In the light, she could finally take a better look at his features, cursing in her head that he was truly not ugly.
°•○●⸸●○•°
„We're fixing each other's problems," Soap declared happily, stopping Rora in the middle of crafting another Molotov. She only was making it in her break time trying to find him: somehow they just happened to miss each other.
„What's my problem?" Ghost asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. Rora could think of a few just from the top of her head.
„The mask... Take it off."
„Show my face?"
„Yes, sir."
„Negative," Ghost shut him down immediately, a pout forming on her lips. Even though she knew he was going to say no, it was a bummer. She went back to rip off a piece of fabric from a tunic she found on the ground, and jammed it inside the bottle.
„Are you ugly?"
„Quite the opposite."
Hearing his sudden confidence made her smile, and for a moment, she let herself guess what he could look like under the mask. Probably like the average British man, she wondered. But something inside her said that maybe the situation was a little better than that.
„I doubt that," Soap retorted not missing a beat, earning a chuckle from her.
„I don't," Rora chimed in with a grin on her face. „But what's my problem, Soap?"
„You blow shite up constantly," he said matter-of-factly. She gasped at him.
„He's not wrong," Ghost backed him up, and suddenly she felt like blowing the two of them up.
„And attitude problems."
„Can't concentrate on one task," Ghost added, Soap humming along.
„Okay, first of all, fuck you two. Like the Shadows weren't attacking me already, man," she sniffled, tucking a few pieces of hair behind her ear as she pushed herself up into a standing position.
„Ya can't be mad at the truth, Wellsy," and she could hear the fucking smile in Soap's voice.
„Shut up, Shampoo," Rora hissed back at him, finally shutting him up.
„Hurry up, Sergeant," Ghost urged her, his low voice sounding more annoying than before. „Don't want to get left out here, do you?"
„Humble yourself, Spirit, I'm trying my best here!"
„Clearly that's not good enough."
„'Not good enough'," she mocked his accent, gripping the bottle tighter in her hand. If he was in front of her, she would kick him in the shins for that.
°•○●⸸●○•°
But somehow, for some odd reason, she wanted nothing more than feel his lips against her once again. And by the fact that his eyes softened ever so slightly when he looked at her, it was clear that he could read her thoughts.
„If you're in, take a mask... If you're not, don't," were Price's final words before he reached first into the pile of skull-printed balaclavas, Ghost being the next.
Reaching across the table, she snathed one for herself, feeling the fabric between her fingers. She took a deep breath in, clearing her mind: no more Everett, no more demons from her past, no more distractions. Only the mission.
„Leave Graves for me," Rora's voice broke the silence, causing the men around her to look at her. Her eyes finally rose from the mask, letting her gaze wander around her squad, her eyes settling on Price. „Even if it's a kamikaze, don't interfere. Because when I see him, his ass is done. And so is everybody else's who gets in my way."
°•○●⸸●○•°
Their mission of taking back the Los Vaqueros HQ was a difficult task. And Rora was double fucked because of her fucked up leg.
Rudy offered to place her in a helo as overwatch, but she had enough of them baby-ing her around, so she pulled up her big girl pants and went with Ghost, Soap, and Rudy to seek out Graves.
„I can carry your ammo, hermana," Rudy offered as they cut through a semi-open space. They had to hurry, and her leg was holding her back. Too bad her pride was much bigger than letting somebody help.
„You're too sweet for this shit, Rudy," Rora breathed out, forcing herself to push herself faster. She could rest all she wanted beside Grave's corpse.
And for the rest of the mission, the boys didn't hear a negative word from her. She took the pain like a boss, only flinching here and there, but she didn't let either of them help. Soap only shook his head in disbelief whenever he saw her struggle keeping up with them, but Ghost checked up on her more than before.
Maybe it was his conscience telling him to look back more, or maybe her heavy gaze burning a hole in the back of his head. Whenever he caught her gaze, she didn't try to hide her distaste toward him, and Ghost didn't blame her for that.
But when they came to an abrupt stop because a shitty ass wall was in their way, Rora couldn't contain her thoughts anymore.
„You've got to be fucking kidding me," she groaned out, her hand aggressively brushing a short piece of hair out of her eyes for the hundredth time now. She regretted cutting her hair impulsively just before the mission, but this was her way of coping with everything. Acting on impulse.
She joined the military on impulse. And she left it on it, too.
She kissed Simon on impulse, too. And it only got her another broken heart.
„We have to climb it," Rudy observed, his eyes hurriedly looking around, looking for anything that could help them to the other side.
„Rudy, I truly like you, but unless you can teach me to fly, there's no fucking chance I'll cross this wall."
„We go, you try and find a way to that roof," Soap gestured towards a little hangar-looking complex, with a rooftop that had the perfect view of the other side.
„Be careful, shitheads," Rora saluted towards them before she took off to her designated spot.
Rushing inside the building, she franticly looked around, seeing that it was used as weapon storage before. There were only a few grenades, ammo packs, and flares left there, nothing particularly useful for her. Then her eyes spotted a ladder in the back, leading up to the roof. On her way to the ladder, she grabbed a few more grenades, just in case it was needed.
She took a moment to prepare herself for the torture the ladder was going to put her leg through. It was already at its limits, but she couldn't just give up now.
„You got this," she muttered to herself, putting her hands on her hips as she looked up. It wasn't going to be a short climb, either. „You are a bad bitch, just tough it out."
And with that, she began her journey up to the roof. The first couple of steps made her groan, her thigh burning and tensing with each step, her breathing getting heavier by the second.
„What the fuck!" Soap yelled through her earpiece, almost causing her to lose balance. „Graves got a fuckin' tank!"
„Please tell me you're joking!" Rora pleaded, gritting her teeth as she tried to fasten her steps. She was definitely going to tear her stitches.
„Do I sound like I fuckin' do, Welly?!"
„Wells, get on the rooftop and try to cover them," Ghost instructed, and the urge to roll her eyes was way too strong to hold back.
„You could've come, too, Lieutenant," her voice slashed through the comms, ice cold. „Where the hell are you, anyways?"
„The helo with Price got ambushed. Do as I said, Sergeant."
She had no idea Price got into trouble. If she knew about it, she could've gone and helped, but no, he just had to be downgrading and bossy, like she wasn't one of them.
„Entitled British fuck," she cursed under her breath, her anger pushing her faster to the rooftop.
„Didn't come through clear, Sergeant," his voice rang again, making her blood freeze. Fuck, she accidentally let her radio open. But the way his voice got several degrees colder and his irritation bounced back from his deeper tone said he understood her clearly. Well, not like she lied.
„Nothing," Rora dismissed, making sure this time to switch her radio off. She was going to be murdered after this mission.
With a final pull, she rolled on the rooftop, her heavy breathing and pain making her hands shook as she picked her rifle back up. Loud explosions shook the roof underneath her feet, making her stumble her way closer to the edge, her eyes widening in pure horror. From her spot, she could see the crash site Ghost was talking about, and it didn't look promising in the slightest. But the main reason that caused her heart to skip a beat was the very fucking tank MacTavish sang about.
Because indeed, there was a motherfucking tank. And it was heading straight towards her.
„Oh, fuck that!" she yelled over the chaos, hurrying away from the ledge, out of the sight of the tank. Hopefully, its driver was busy not getting blown up by Rodolfo and Soap. „Soap, I got visuals on you!"
„That's great and all, but would you mind creating a little distraction?" he spoke up, his last words almost drowned out by another explosion. The tank fired at a wall, it crumbling to the ground. Soap was running to that very building's second story.
„I can blow shit up?" her eyes lighted up, excitement taking over her body.
„Graves driving that shit," he cried out. Things just got more interesting, and if she was good at something, it was blowing things up and killing people. And she wanted to kill Graves more than anybody.
„Wells," Ghost disturbed her thoughts, her hand already reaching for a grenade that was secured around her waist. „You get a free hand. Do whatever to terminate him."
„I want it to hear from you, Ghost," she sang, the corner of her lips curving into a devilish smile.
„Mind hurrying up?!" Soap yelled over another explosion, her heartbeat quickening. She was a menace, she knew that. But she needed to hear it from him. She wanted him bend to her power.
„Yes, Wells, blow shit up," he finally gave in, the urgency in his voice making his accent pop more. And with that, she pulled the ring out from her grenade and chucked it straight toward the tank, with the biggest smile on her face.
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i hope you guys were satisfied with this chapter, even though it was a little shorter one than usual. but the next one will be longer and i have a feeling it cause some drama :)
also, there are not many chapters left guys, maybe 5 more or so. so we still have a few to go but just bare in mind we're close to the ending! i think you guys will like what i have in mind ^^
love you xx