Silence Series

•Silence on the Line•

"How copy?"

The signal went out over comms the same as Ghost had done so many times before, calling out to you over the receiver to close the distance between you both, a literal lifeline directly to you, until he could be next to you again. Instead of being met with your bright, sparkling voice answering his call, there was nothing except the steady buzz of electricity in his ears and the complete radio silence that awaiting him at the other end of the line.

Again he held down the mic button, his clothed lips close to the mouthpiece of his headset as he sent out the call to you once more. Of course there were times when he had to send out the call for you more than once, but something about this specific time hung ominous in the air around him. The hair on his arms stood up as if he were cold, but that wasn't possible given the climate he was in.

"Come in Maverick, I repeat, how copy?"

Again he released the button to wait for your answer and again there was nothing except the crushing silence to greet him. It felt strange, as if he had slipped into a dream at some point, and yet he could feel the weight of his rifle in his hand and the gear on his shoulders.

A third time the call went out and when still now answer came, desperation began to spread out through his chest cavity like a disease, coursing through his veins like an aggressive cancer to eat away at him. Why weren't you answering him when he had just heard your voice not even 20 minutes ago? He heard you say it, Intel was secure and your half of the team was fixing to head out. He would see you in a few minutes when you joined him at the edge of the facilities property and then it was on to extraction. Now there was nothing. Why was there nothing?

Nothing.

You were no stranger to how anxious the man behind the mask could get when you both were on mission and to keep those fears at bay would always make certain to meet his call with your reply as quick as you could. So, where were you now when everything was supposed to be fine? His mind raced with an infinite amount of possibilities as the minutes ticked on in agonizing fashion until that familiar click was heard over his headset and he felt like he could breath easy once more.

Finally, he though to himself with a nervous laugh at how silly he was acting. Took her long enough. I know she'll be apologizing for days with that one.

"Bravo 0-7, come in. This is Bravo 7-1. Maverick...uh she's... she's..."

It was Johnny's voice that flooded through your headset not yours, which caught Ghost completely off guard. Why the fuck was he answering for you and why did he sound so goddamn distraught and out of breath? That wasn't the person he had been asking for and it angered him to think that he would take your headset away from you so you couldn't reply.

"What the hell Johnny, where is she? Let me speak to her," Ghost argued heated and on edge through the microphone. Silence again was all he got; why the fuck was there so much goddamn silence when his world was usually so chaotically loud? Somewhere deep in his bones Ghost already knew... he knew what was happening in real time over the radio, though his heart pleaded with his mind to not let him understand yet. Just leave him stuck in limbo until the last possible second to hold off the pain.

Even though he was a man of very few words himself, this type of quiet was killing him to endure. "What the fuck is goin' on. Answer me!" Ghost yelled desperately through the headset.

"Maverick went down..." he heard, followed by a break where static cut in and then "...is K.I.A. L.T., she's gone."

No, no, that didn't sound right. He had just heard your voice and you had been fine, why was Johnny lying to him like this? Or was it some sort of cruel joke that he had decided to play at the last second as they neared the meeting point? The Scot was known to make a few silly digs at him over the years, but this was far from his sense of humor; the mission was over, there was nothing left that could go wrong. No, maybe Ghost had just misheard. Yes, that had to be it; he had misheard because of the signal drop.