A Living Shield (John Price x OC/Reader slowburn)

25) A Place to Stay

[🎵: Ditmas - Mumford & Sons 🔂]

Tapping the ash off your cigarette absent-mindedly, you braced yourself against the morning frost that was hitting your skin. The stone steps in front of your assigned barracks freezing underneath your arse, as you shuffled a bit uncomfortably. Your thigh still ached a lot after being shot and certain angles just didn't work too well with you.

Even after she's gone Griffin still has a way of annoying me. What a bloody talent.

The cold was horrible this early but you needed it to wake yourselves. And the short sleeved tee you were wearing wasn't holding much back.

Your legs dangled out over the steps underneath you. It wasn't very ladylike but you couldn't give a damn as you raised your steaming cup of coffee to your lips, testing the drinkability against your tongue.

Shit-!

Wincing at the burn, your eyes caught the mass of SAS soldiers over the rim of your cup. They were on their morning run at the other side of the courtyard. You were beyond relieved you didn't have to participate in shit like that anymore. Not that Price hadn't threatened to make you, Gaz and Soap run laps every now and then. He didn't always agree with your little practical jokes after all.

Messing with his beard trimming kit had been your first offence. Turning off the wifi to get out of a boring meeting had been the second. And admittedly, in general it wasn't a good idea to mess with your captain when he was tired and cranky. Which was why it was so fun. And why it also never ended well.

As the soldiers ran closer, you noticed the four heads of the boys you'd been working closely with for the past two days. Bobbing up and down as they held up the excruciating pace. A grin already crept across your face as you smugly looked at their teeth chattering and the red splotches on their face from the early exertion in the cold.

The lord is testing me, how can I resist?

Your eyes not sparing them for a single second as some of them looked over, and your face just openly teased them.

Tough love you could call it.

"Morning, ma'am!", you heard 'em shout as they passed you by. Crawford was always so respectful and diligent, his eyes alight as he basically yelled at you. He and Wolfe clearly meant their greeting, with the latter nodding curtly. Nestor and Wheys however seemed sarcastic as all hell, but knew they couldn't say anything in the vicinity of their drill sergeant. It amused you thoroughly.

"Morning ladies, you lot look stunning with those rosy cheeks", you said with a smirk as you got a sour look from Nestor, before he nearly tripped over his own feet.

You could barely contain your laughter as you watched them leave, knowing full well they would complain about it openly later. You'd gotten fairly close to them so far. They grew on you faster than you'd expected and it was clear they liked your presence. It'd been quite a while since you had people look up to you like this. While also not seeing you as a stuck up superior. It felt a bit heart warming in a way and you couldn't deny that you liked it. They were young, but they worked well together. And they had listened to you exceptionally well.

Working out a strategy for them to follow, without necessarily needing input or interference from you or anyone else from the 141 to function, had been rather tricky. Involving new and less experienced people into the Killswitch case was not an easy choice but it was one that had to be made, even Price had agreed to it. And despite the difficulty, they were patient and eager, so you'd eventually gotten a decent system in place. One that would allow them to report back to Laswell and Shepherd immediately if necessary, and get you the details and info you needed.