Behind His Eyes (CoD: Ghost Fanfiction)

9

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.