Missing You

Jenny (Chapter 3)

"If anyone else complains about this goddamn heat, I will order every single one of you to make me a fucking ice box and you'll be on my shit list and shining my shoes for the rest of your life." Jenny shouted as her Marines stood in perfect formation in front of her. Daily inspections were worthless out here and no one wanted to be in full gear unless it was necessary. In the desert her boots were the same as everyone else's, as was her cammies, however that didn't stop the threat from moving into life back on base whenever they got home.

Without another word, because she didn't trust her temperament, she did her rounds and dismissed her troops. Nothing was going right in this place and now the phone lines were down with no clue as to when they'd be up.

Why this deployment was harder than the rest of them, she could not figure out, but damn if she wasn't ready to pack up her Marines and go home.

"Captain?" Corporal Franklin said from beside her desk. She hadn't even realized she had sat down, which was good, since it seemed she was about to be asked to get up and do something else.

"Yes, Corporal?"

"Colonel wants to see you."

Jenny resisted the urge to drop her head on her desk and groaned. She and the Colonel didn't see eye to eye and if he needed her, her day was going to get worse. "Did he say why?" she muttered as she grabbed her cover and stood.

"No ma'am. He just said to come get you and to not take no as an answer," Franklin said, his voice sounding as weary as she felt.

"Thank you, Corporal." She nodded to him and marched off.

Stepping outside into the blazing sun, the heat penetrating into her bones, she squinted to get her bearings, put her cover on, and found her way to the Colonel's office. So far, the day had been quieter than the previous days; the motor rounds keeping to the distance. She could hear shots being fired a few miles away and had to resist the urge to duck when noises echoed around their camp.

Men and women were armed at every door here. Every door and every open space, crack, or crevice. The base itself was surrounded by temporary brick walls, not that it would protect much if they were the next target on someone else's agenda, but it was something.

Avoiding most of the Marines, and the polite respect they all gave when she felt she didn't deserve much of it, she entered the building and shut the door. It was a bit of a relief to know the air conditioner worked here about as well as it did in her office.

Cradling her cover in her arm, she knocked on the Colonel's door. "What?"

Cracking the door, she looked in and said, "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes, Captain, come in. Sit down. Can I get you a hot water or lukewarm water?" Colonel Jones asked in a dry tone. Most would think he was being civil when asking if she wanted a drink, but everyone around here knew otherwise.

Hydration, or lack of, was taken almost as seriously as the count of munitions in the locked cabinets. You didn't miscount the bullets and you sure as hell didn't drink below your quota of water for the day.

She'd decline, but that would just stir up another world of shit she didn't want. "Lukewarm is fine, sir." The words barely left her mouth before a bottle was thrown in her direction. She caught it, thanks to years of training, though it wasn't by much.

"Your arms getting better," Jones commented as he used a dirt stained towel to wipe the sweat from his brow.

"Practice, sir." Cracking the lid, Jenny took down half the bottle before recapping it and setting it on the edge of the desk. She would not admit that she needed the entire bottle just as he would not admit that he did too.

She watched as Colonel Jones sat at his desk, the uneven piles of paperwork mimicking her own, and waited for the shoe to drop. He was silent for a long minute before he spoke, his voice hard and aggressive, per his normal. "Pack an overnight back with civilian clothes for a night or two. You're flying out in the morning." (no civilian clothes on base)

Jenny opened her mouth, shut it, then opened it again. "I'm sorry, sir. What?"

"Did I stutter, Captain?"

"No sir. Where am I being assigned to?" Her mind was going a million miles a minute trying to think of what they were sending her into and why.

"Not assigned. Yet. You need to be at a meeting in Dubai. You're going on my behalf, so don't fuck it up."

"Yes, sir. What's the meeting about, sir?"

"Relocation of our base."

That seemed, odd. As far as she knew, she had no say in where they went or when. If a relocation would happen, she would be told it was happening and expected to get her people in line and moved on time. Her suspicion of the situation sat heavily in her mind and that's where it would stay. She wasn't about to question it.

"0600, you know where to be." Jones looked down at his paperwork and opened a manila folder, studying its contents.

Jenny should have taken the hint and yet she stayed rooted to her spot, unable to process what he was asking of her and why. "Are you waiting for a fucking invitation? Dismissed, Captain." Scrambling to her feet, and being sure to grab her water, she nodded to the Colonel and exited the office as quick as possible.

The heat from the outside was not a shock this time, and it took only a second before she was back at her desk, cover on the corner, and her head back in her hands. "Fuck," she muttered to the tin of the desk, hating the way the words seem to vibrate through the metal and back into her body.

"Uh, Captain?" She didn't need to look to know that Sergeant Mills was the one talking to her. She'd know that voice anywhere and had known that voice for over a decade.

"No, Sergeant. Whatever it is, no. Not even a no, but a hell fucking no." Mills was her husband's cousin, and they were as close as brothers. He joined the Marines after she did and there were days she wondered if he did it just to keep an eye on her. It was by sheer dumb luck he ended up in her command and by an even dumber luck he had stayed there.

She took pride in the fact that she didn't play favorites with her Marines, though some of them she'd send back to boot camp for another year if given the chance. Because of the no favorite rule, she had to try extra hard to not have a soft spot for Mills. Which would have been fine, had he not looked exactly like her husband. Genetics in that family did not fall far from the tree.

"Phones are up, and officers are first." Jenny shot to a sitting position so fast that her head spun. She took a moment to regain herself before standing and hesitating. It was not an easy thing to put herself before others, especially when some of her Marines were still babies in her eyes. They deserved the phone lines the more than she did.

"Go call that idiot husband of yours and tell him I said hi," Mills whispered to her, giving her the briefest of smiles. Rumors liked to spread like wildfire during deployments and although most knew they were related by marriage; it was still an instant ignition if they were caught talking alone and on friendly terms.

Grabbing her cover, she tried not to run from the building and out to communications. She tried not to, but her steps had different plans.