More Than Human

Chapter 36: That Head of His

Soap practically tackled Price to the ground when he opened the door of the apartment in a hug.

"Easy, Son!" Price laughed, patting him on the shoulder. He looked up at Ghost as he entered, "Everything go okay? No property damage?"

"Didn't burn the place down, Captain." Ghost affirmed.

"Good man." Price gently pried himself away from Soap, "Why don't you go give Gaz one of these bone crushing hugs, sergeant? He's been a little down the past few days."

That sent Soap flying farther into the apartment to locate his teammate. Price shook his head fondly.

"Captain."

He turned around to face Ghost, "Lieutenant."

"Could I speak with you about something?"

"Of course, Simon." He patted the man's arm before leading him down the hall and into the room he had been staying in. He sat down on the bed and gestured for Ghost to take a seat in the arm chair in the corner, "If this is about you and my sergeant's relationship status, don't worry on that front. You two are good for each other."

"Not what I was going to ask about." Ghost replied as he sat down.

"Oh, so you weren't going to ask my permission?" Price asked with mock offense, "I'm very protective of my sergeants, y'know."
Ghost chuckled, "I care about him too. So I wasn't going to risk you saying no."

"Suppose I can't argue with that." Price shrugged, "In all seriousness, what did you need."

"Gaz alright?" He asked first, just curious after what Price had said at the door.

The Captain sighed at that, "He'll be alright once we're actually taking some action. Our new target has gotten under his bark."

"Makarov?" Ghost clarified.

Price nodded, "The lab I found him in back in the day. One of Makarov's. I'm a bit in the dark about what he went through before I had him, but I imagine it wasn't anything good."

"He's who I wanted to talk to you about actually." Ghost started, "Soap asked me about him in the car today. Asked if he seemed familiar to me."

Price leaned forward, elbows on his knees, "Really?"

Ghost nodded, "Told him I had only ever heard of him. But he told me that Makarov seemed familiar to him. He was trying hard to remember, but it looked like it was hurting him how hard he was trying. He mentioned before that he didn't know his parents. How much do you know about Johnny's background, Captain?"

Price huffed, "MacTavish came directly from a specialty orphanage in Glasgow. Tried enlisting before eighteen, unsuccessfully I might add. Picked him out during his training not long after Gaz started working with me. Like you, I was curious about him. Laswell and I spoke with his orphanage for his records."

"And?" Ghost asked, extremely intrigued.

"And nothing. He had been dropped off by some other military personnel when he was just a little pup. No memory of where he had come from, and seemingly no desire to know. We haven't been able to learn anything else about him."

"The soldiers who dropped him off?" Ghost prompted.

Price shook his head thoughtfully, "No trace. Must have been off the books. Not surprising in all honesty. Anything having to do with monsters is often swept under the rug. Particularly back in the day. He's never mentioned anything feeling familiar to him before."

Price stood up and began pacing, "Out of all people that he could recognize. Makarov? After all these years?"

Ghost spoke up again, "The way he was trying to remember earlier, it got me wondering about magic. I'm not enlightened on the subject outside of my own vampyrism much. Figured I should ask you if that could be a reason for his memory loss? You'd know best."

Price stroked a hand over his mustache, "For a spell to last this long, it would have to be a permanent one. I doubt Makarov would feel familiar in the slightest."
"Are there things that could cancel that out, though? I'm not familiar with the effects of silver poisoning in werewolves, but could that have done something?"

"No. Especially after Rudy's tears. Flushed that out of his system." Price muttered before suddenly looking up with wide eyes, clearly having come to a realization. He snapped his fingers, "That's it."
"What is it, Captain?"

"The tears! Rudy's tears, Simon!" Price told him, "Not much is known about siren tears. They can heal, miraculously. But the extent of it, up for debate. But if they can fully heal all ailments, I would think spells and curses would fall under that category."

Ghost watched him cross the room and grab his phone, probably going to message Los Vaqueros.

"If it healed him of it, why can't he remember now?" Ghost asked, extremely confused, "Why's it so hard for him?"

"It probably just cleared a blockage. But he hasn't been using those memories for years, I would imagine it's taking him a bit to kickstart them. He might not be able to remember now, but he's probably going to start. It's beginning as an inkling, but it'll probably grow from here." Price theorized.

"Do we really want him to remember, Price? We don't know what he went through. He probably came from somewhere similar to Gaz. There could be anything in that head of his." Ghost mused.

"Not sure we have a choice here, Simon. Not now." Price told him earnestly, "We'll just need to be there when it starts to come at him."

"This is going to suck, Captain." Ghost observed.

Price nodded, "It is, son. What do you want to do now?"

"Tell him."