Home - COD Simon Ghost Riley X Female OC

Chapter 7

A week was a long time. New angle could mean anything. The non-answers he had left the room with followed him down the hall and out into the bright sun. He ran again, longer this time. Until he was tired.

"Come outside with me, it's warm today." Leeanne leaned over MJ's shoulder where she sat and read at the breakfast table.

The blonde woman had become her friend over the past few weeks, first healing her, and then keeping her busy, and now pulling her along on everyday things. Rossi must be bored too, with no one seeing any action. MJ laid her book down. The copy of The Hobbit was cracking at the spine. She used a piece of her napkin to mark her spot.

"Sure."

MJ knew Leeanne probably wanted a cigarette and she needed the vitamin D terribly. They walked out through the garage, turning and exiting through a room where the walls were lined with weapons and ammunition. MJ tried not to gape at them. The door led to a small patio. More vehicles were parked outside, blocking the view of the desert beyond the fence.

"What's on your mind?" Rossi asked her.

MJ looked over at her, squinting in the sun. She wasn't sure she should say. "Just another day in paradise."

The medic laughed. "I suppose so." She smiled softly. "You won't be here forever, you know."

MJ shrugged, turning her face back up to the sun. "It's not so bad. And I don't know where I would go. I'll ride it out as long as I can."

When she opened her eyes again, she could see someone running by, beyond the vehicles. It wasn't unusual, she had learned, for the soldiers to use the yard to workout on nice days. His face was covered.

"Hm." Leeanne huffed, her cigarette between her lips.

"He runs with that thing on." MJ mumbled.

She cocked her head. "He's consistent."

They sat in silence a moment longer as he turned the other direction. "What do you know about him?"

Rossi looked her up and down for a moment. "Simon Riley is a battered man. He's not your romance novel man in uniform." MJ glanced at her, shielding her eyes from the sun. "He's a good soldier. By the book. Good luck finding anything else to speak of."

MJ just nodded. John Mactavish had similar sentiments about the masked man. Every time someone told her there was nothing else to know about him, she was determined to prove them wrong. She had no right to him at all, to his time, to his story, but she was drawn to it all the same. She had replayed their conversation from the night before over and over in her mind. Not because it had given her anything of substance, but because she liked talking to him. No one else had sought her out, no one else had cared if she was there or not. Or why.

He hadn't trusted her at first, she knew that. She knew all of his little conversations were to feel out if she was lying or spying. She practiced law, she knew interrogation techniques when she saw them. She didn't mind. She had nothing at all to hide.

Price caught them in the garage on their way back in. He was taller than she had thought, and less intimidating than she had hoped.

"Mariana." He smiled as though they were old friends. "I was hoping we could speak."

She guessed his qualms about her speaking to anyone but Ghost had been resolved. "Of course."

"This way."

He guided her back into the compound and to his office, shutting the door behind them. They were alone. He motioned to a chair across from his desk and she took it.